Nathan

Here's some relevant text that Dr. Kawashima's disembodied head gives you when you start up a new file:

"I've found that quick, simple exercises in reading, writing, and arithmetic can help."

"Modern imaging tools suggest that they [training programs] are all quite effective!"

From the instruction booklet:

"So training your prefrontal cortex could actually raise your intelligence!"

"If you proactively reinforce daily habits of brain training, you can help to prevent a decrease in brain function."

Not the language. The use of the words CAN and COULD and SUGGEST. Dr. Kawashima is a true scientist, and is not proclaiming his test results as pure fact. He's confident in them, for sure, but he realizes he might not know the whole picture.

Also note that Dr. Kawashima has performed experiments with cognitively impaired patients. Ones that performed simple calculations and read aloud were able to prevent the worsening of their condition more than those who hadn't.

They crux of the matter, though, isn't the validity of Dr. Kawashima's results, nor the validity of Salthouse's findings. The real problem is that the article writer thinks that Brain Age claims to prevent mental aging. Nowhere does it do that. Instead, it claims to help you exercise your prefrontal cortex, possibly to the point where your brain is functioning as efficiently as the brain of a 20-year older's.

The next article by the same person, will of course go to the trouble of pointing out that Big Brain Academy does not actually - shocking as it may be! - increase the size nor weight of your game. They'll confuse the simple, abstract, and fun measurement system the game uses, and think that the game is claiming to actually be able to increase the size and mass of your brain.

Standard stuff from people who don't bother to research the subjects of their so-called reporting. Luckily, I seem to be preaching to the choir here, as this post is full of posts that, I daresay, would make Dr. Kawashima VERY happy indeed. Looks like most of us are getting plenty of blood flow to the central cortex...