Think you can make yourself smarter with brain-training software? New studies suggest that so-called brain games don't improve players' thinking or IQ, they just make you better at playing the games, the New Yorker reported.

 

The studies come after of a decade of spotty research suggesting that brain games do work--and the launch of companies such as Cogmed, Lumosity, Jungle Memory and CogniFit that sell brain games for kids, older adults and everyone in between. The New Yorker talked with Cogmed executives, who insisted the new research was flawed. Meanwhile, the researchers involved in the skeptical studies say it's unethical to sell software that doesn't work, especially to vulnerable audiences such as kids with learning disorders or older adults worried about cognitive decline.