Lumos Labs, creators of the “brain training” app Lumosity, has been busted in the US for making false claims and subsequently fined $US2 million. The systems are also regularly marketed in Australia using the same US creative although the company is not under investigation locally.

The US’ Federal Trade Commission (FTC)  fined the firm for making unfounded claims in its advertising that suggested using its brain games could help school kids get better grades and even help people with Alzheimer’s Disease.

The FTC said the company “preyed on consumers’s fears about age-related cognitive decline” by stating that playing its games a few times a week could help users unlock their “full potential in every aspect of life”.

However, the FTC’s investigations found that the claims Lumosity made were simply untrue and not backed by any science or research.

Brain training devices pulled in global revenues of about $US1 billion in 2013 and are estimated to grow six-times that over the next five years.