‘Brain Training’ no gaming gimmick according to UK study

While the videogame industry has its fair share of detractors, who often claim that the popular pastime damages those children that indulge, a new study carried out in the United Kingdom has revealed that daily consumption of certain game types can actually improve mental agility. UK-based study reveals that brief daily use of Nintendo DS puzzle videogame

UK-based study reveals that brief daily use of Nintendo DS puzzle videogame "dramatically" increases the mathematical skill and concentration in children. Credit: Nintendo.According to a study involving 30 children aged nine and ten from St. Columba’s Primary School in Scotland, performance in mathematics and general concentration showed distinct signs of improvement when the pupils started every school day with a 15-minute session of Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training on the Nintendo DS handheld console.A recent BBC News article reports that three separate groups of children were involved during the study, all of which took a mathematics test prior to entering into 10 weeks of monitoring. The first 30 pupils then utilised the Nintendo DS game each morning; the second same-aged group of 30 pupils applied a series of body exercises called Brain Gym before lessons; and a third group simply moved through a normal school day without access to either the videogame or the physical exercises.Following the completion of the 10 weeks of study, all three groups were then given the mathematics test again, and all three showed signs of improvement. However, the most notable rise was recorded in the group of pupils using Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training, which saw the average score rise from 76/100 through to 86/100, while completion speed dropped from 17 minutes to 13 minutes.Interestingly, not one pupil who had used the Nintendo DS game registered a second score of less than 65/100, while those who had initially struggled with the test performed extremely well, with one such pupil rising from 25/100 up to an impressive 68/100.Those children using the Brain Gym exercises, and those in the control group, also showed a degree of improvement on their second tests, although a number of pupils still registered scores ranging between 20-50/100."The results of this small-scale Dr Kawashima project have shown how a targeted and managed use of such a game can help to enhance pupil numeracy skills and classroom behaviour," enthused Derek Robertson from Learning and Teaching Scotland, the organisation that conducted the study, regarding the "dramatic enhancement" recorded over a mere 10 weeks of usage. "In fact I have never before seen such gains across the board."Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old is Your Brain is a puzzle-based game published and developed by Nintendo; it features stroop tests, mathematical questions, and Sudoku-based puzzles, all designed to maintain activity in certain important parts of the brain. The Dr. Kawashima series on Nintendo’s DS handheld has sold approximately 10 million units worldwide since it first appeared in May of 2005.