Lumosity brain games prevent cognitive decline
| Lumosity brain games prevent cognitive decline | |
|---|---|
| FALSE | |
| "Playing Lumosity's brain-training games improves performance at work and school and can delay age-related memory loss and dementia." | |
| Domain | Health & Medicine |
| Tactic | Pseudoscience / Junk Science |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | 2012 |
| Origin | Lumos Labs advertising on television, radio and online from about 2012 |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-30 |
| Further reading: books on Health & Medicine | |
Lumos Labs, maker of the Lumosity app, advertised that its online games could sharpen performance at work and school and help ward off memory loss, dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Millions of people paid for subscriptions.
The Federal Trade Commission found the company lacked evidence for those claims.
What the evidence shows
- FTC settlement. In January 2016, Lumos Labs agreed to pay $2 million and notify subscribers of the settlement, resolving FTC charges of deceptive advertising. A $50 million judgment was suspended because of the company's finances.
- Scientists' statement. In 2014, about 70 cognitive scientists and neuroscientists signed a statement organized by the Stanford Center on Longevity saying there was no compelling evidence that brain games reduce or reverse cognitive decline.
- Narrow gains. Research generally finds that people get better at the specific games they practice, without clear transfer to everyday thinking or protection against dementia.
Why it matters
Fear of dementia makes people receptive to easy fixes. Claims of medical benefit need medical-grade evidence.
Sources
- Federal Trade Commission, "Lumosity to Pay $2 Million to Settle FTC Deceptive Advertising Charges for Its 'Brain Training' Program," January 5, 2016.
- Stanford Center on Longevity and Max Planck Institute for Human Development, "A Consensus on the Brain Training Industry from the Scientific Community," October 2014.
- Daniel J. Simons et al., "Do 'Brain-Training' Programs Work?" Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2016.