Five of the best brain training apps

With recent research conducted by the BBC finding that playing online games does indeed keep your brain sharp, you might be wondering how you can train your brain. 

The study found that after six months of playing online brain training games ten minutes at a time, five times a week study participants showed better overall cognitive skills than those who didn’t.

But to do something so regularly, it helps if you enjoy it, so here is are our pick of the best brain training apps.  

1. Luminosity

Millions of people worldwide use this app and it’s at least partly down to the fact that it offers such a variety of brain training games. It also allows you to pick certain types of brain training you’d like to do – memory or problem-solving, for example – which means you can change your brain workout whenever you feel like you need to.

2. Eidetic

If memory loss is what you’re worried about, this one’s for you. It helps you remember important information through prompting you at certain points to re-memorise the details and gives you ways in which you can retain the information. It’s set up to test you at appropriate intervals to ensure that the information goes into long-term memory, ready for whenever you need it. 

3. Fit Brains Trainer

Designed by language education company, Rosetta Stone, this one is for those who like a challenge as it will never let you take it easy - as you play, the app takes into account how you’re doing, and will make the tasks more difficult to make sure you keep pushing yourself. 

4. CogniFit Brain Fitness 

If you need a bit of competition to keep yourself on track, this app is for you. It allows you to ‘compete’ against others also using the app so you can try to get a better score than your young nephew or niece, for example. It’ll also give you recommendations of other games (within the app) that will further challenge you if you’re doing well in one area.

5. Brain Trainer Special Pro

If you want to push your brain in different ways, this app is perfect as it features maths games, shape games, memory games, numbers, colours, 3D games and other classics such as sudoku. 

The price? All of these apps are free, but incur a fee if you want to upgrade to a premium version or in some cases may be free for a set time only. Premium versions usually include a far wider variety of games as well as more detailed scoring and personal recommendations tailored to your skill set, for example.