The rising prevalence rates of age-related cognitive impairment are a worldwide public concern, bringing about a surge in the number of “brain training” programs commercially available to the general public. Numerous companies advertise that their products improve memory and protect against cognitive decline, though researchers have voiced concerns regarding the validity of such claims. To address this issue, the current meta-analytic investigation examined evidence from 43 studies (encompassing 2,636 participants) to evaluate the efficacy of commercial training programs within two separate populations: healthy older adults and older adults with mild cognitive-impairment (MCI). Seven programs were identified: BrainGymmer, BrainHQ, CogMed, CogniFit, Dakim, Lumosity, and MyBrainTrainer. Analyses yielded small, significant near-transfer effects for both healthy and MCI samples. Far-transfer was not observed for the MCI sample, whereas a small, significant effect was found for subjective but not objective measures of far-transfer in the healthy sample. Analyses of individual domains (combining near-and far-transfer outcomes) yielded significant transfer to executive-functioning, memory, and processing-speed in healthy older adults. After adjusting for publication bias, only the effect size for processing speed remained significant. Transfer to attention, objective everyday functioning, fluid-intelligence, and visuospatial domains was not significant. Thus, whilst “brain training” may be suitable for enjoyment and entertainment purposes, there is currently insufficient empirical evidence to support that such training can improve memory, general cognition, or everyday functioning. This area of research is still in its infancy and warrants further investigation to provide more substantial evidence regarding the efficacy of this rapidly expanding industry.

与年龄相关的认知障碍患病率上升是全球公众关注的问题，导致向公众开放的商业“大脑训练”项目数量激增。许多公司宣传他们的产品可以改善记忆力并防止认知能力下降，尽管研究人员对此类声明的有效性表示担忧。为了解决这个问题，目前的荟萃分析调查检查了来自 43 项研究（包括 2,636 名参与者）的证据，以评估商业培训计划在两个不同人群中的效果：健康老年人和轻度认知障碍 (MCI) 老年人。确定了七个程序：BrainGymmer、BrainHQ、CogMed、CogniFit、Dakim、Lumosity 和 MyBrainTrainer。分析结果很小，对健康样本和 MCI 样本都有显着的近转移效应。MCI 样本未观察到远距离转移，而健康样本中远距离转移的主观而非客观测量发现了一个小的显着影响。对各个领域的分析（结合近和远转移结果）在健康老年人的执行功能、记忆和处理速度方面产生了显着的转移。在调整发表偏倚后，只有处理速度的影响大小仍然显着。转移到注意力、客观日常功能、流体智能和视觉空间领域并不显着。因此，虽然“大脑训练”可能适合娱乐和娱乐目的，但目前没有足够的经验证据支持这种训练可以提高记忆力、一般认知能力、或日常运作。这一研究领域仍处于起步阶段，需要进一步调查，以提供更多关于这个快速扩张行业的有效性的实质性证据。