Skeptic Check: Brain Gain

Published: Aug. 26, 2019, 3:22 p.m.

(repeat) Looking to boost your brainpower?\xa0Luckily, there are products promising to help.\xa0Smart drugs, neurofeedback exercises, and brain-training video games all promise to improve your gray matter\u2019s performance.\xa0But it\u2019s uncertain whether these products really work.\xa0Regulatory agencies have come down hard on some popular brain training companies for false advertising. But other brain games have shown benefits in clinical trials.\xa0And could we skip the brain workout altogether and pop a genius pill instead?\xa0\nIn our monthly look at critical thinking, we separate the pseudo from the science of commercial cognitive enhancement techniques.\nGuests:\n\n\nCaroline Williams\u2013\xa0Science journalist and author of \u201cMy Plastic Brain: One Woman\u2019s Yearlong Journey to Discover If Science Can Improve Her Mind\u201d\n\n\nAdam Gazzaley\u2013\xa0Neuroscientist, University of California, San Francisco, and the executive director of Neuroscape.\xa0His book is \u201cThe Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High Tech World.\u201d\xa0\n\n\n Amy Arnsten\u2013\xa0Professor of neuroscience and psychology at Yale Medical School\n\n\nKevin Roose\u2013\xa0Journalist for the New York Times.\n\n\nLeonard Mlodinow\u2013\xa0Physicist and author of \u201cElastic: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change\u201d\n\n\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices