An interesting recent article announcesPupils to start day with Nintendo Brain Training(UK’s Daily Telegraph). Some quotes:

- “Children at 16 primary schools are to start each day by playing on a Nintendo games console, it was disclosed yesterday.”

- “The pupils will play “brain training” exercises before lessons after a pilot scheme at a school in Dundee found that it boosted learning ability.”

- “Children at St Columba’s Primary in the city scored higher in maths tests and had improved concentration and behaviour after playing the Nintendo game More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima, the study showed.”

- “LTS is working with school inspectors and Dundee University to carry out a larger pilot of the scheme, with 16 schools using the game every morning and another 16 acting as the control group.”

Comments: Despite much searching, including asking the agency involved in that “pilot scheme at a school in Dundee”, we have not been able to find any scientific paper describing the experiment and its results. We hope future articles will better reference and perhaps question the scientific research involved, so we can really evaluate whether Nintendo games are that, fun games, or can really make cognitive training claims and merit education and health-related attention. In the meantime…let’s keep playing.