Boffins are doing my head in | Victoria Coren Mitchell

Scientists now pooh-pooh brain-training exercises. Have they lost their marbles?

Pesky scientists! They're always causing trouble. Last Tuesday, they were in the newspapers with a report that "brain-training games" do not make the brain better at anything except playing the games themselves. There's no evidence of real-world benefits, sharpened memory or improved cognitive function.

Is this news? In my experience, scientists never say anything else. I can remember several previous reports that scientists have found brain-training games to be useless.