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Brain training is a term used primarily by companies which market cognitive intervention products or by the lay public, rather than clinicians or researchers. The term is somewhat of a misnomer as only a very small fraction of published studies have assessed neural activity directly. Companies use this term to refer to “… practicing core cognitive abilities with the goal of improving performance on other cognitive tasks, including those involved in everyday activities…” (Simons et al. 2016, pp. 105). Support for the term and particularly its effectiveness is highly controversial, and scientific effectiveness should be differentiated from marketing and other claims. Care should be used in that the term brain training is not synonymous with concepts like cognitive training or cognitive rehabilitation.
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Simons, D. J., Boot, W. R., Charness, N., Gathercole, S. E., Chabris, C. F., Kambrick, D. Z., & Stine-Morrow, A. L. (2016). Do “brain-training” programs work? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17(3), 103–186.
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DeLuca, J. (2016). Brain Training. In: Kreutzer, J., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_9219-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_9219-1
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