Does brain training work? Not according to an article that has just appeared in Nature. Paper here, video here or here.

These results provide no evidence for any generalized improvements in cognitive function following brain training in a large sample of healthy adults. This was true for both the ‘general cognitive training’ group (experimental group 2) who practised tests of memory, attention, visuospatial processing and mathematics similar to many of those found in commercial brain trainers, and for a more focused training group (experimental group 1) who practised tests of reasoning, planning and problem solving. Indeed, both groups provided evidence that training-related improvements may not even generalize to other tasks that use similar cognitive functions.

Note that they were specifically looking for transfer effects. The specific tasks practised did themselves show improvements.