Out: crossword puzzles. In: digital cognitive assessments and training

Do brain games work? (The Boston Globe):

“There’s intense interest?—?and the poten­tial for big money?—?in the world of brain games. Lumosity…claims 60 mil­lion users…The mar­ket for Lumos­i­ty and com­peti­tors like Cogmed and Posit Sci­ence is grow­ing 25 per­cent a year, accord­ing to Sharp­Brains, a neu­ro-well­ness research firm. Sharp­Brains pegged 2013 spend­ing on brain fit­ness hard­ware and software?—?not includ­ing paper-based prod­ucts or in-per­son classes?—?at $1.3 bil­lion world­wide. It expects to see that fig­ure rise to $6 bil­lion by 2020.

The big spenders are, no sur­prise, baby boomers, the youngest of whom are hit­ting 50 this year. They account for about half of the mar­ket. Spend­ing on brain train­ing for kids accounts for anoth­er 20 percent…Perhaps in antic­i­pa­tion of the wave of boomers, the Cen­ters for Medicare & Med­ic­aid Ser­vices recent­ly began accept­ing com­ments on a pro­pos­al that could lead to reim­burse­ments for some costs asso­ci­at­ed with brain games.

We live in an age where advances in pub­lic health and med­i­cine have extend­ed the length and qual­i­ty of our lives, but “brain health hasn’t kept up with the pace,” says Dr. Alvaro Pas­cual-Leone, a pro­fes­sor at Har­vard Med­ical School who cofound­ed the Brain Fit Club with Wong in 2012.

One chal­lenge for brain train­ing is that we lack basic base lines, brain equiv­a­lents for a body mass index. Wong starts her patients with a 90-minute cog­ni­tive assess­ment, as well as anoth­er 45 min­utes or so to mea­sure gait and bal­ance. These two-plus hours are used to devel­op a pro­file for each patient and cus­tomize a plan of men­tal and phys­i­cal exercises.”

To learn more:

• Info­graphic on the Dig­i­tal Brain Health Mar­ket 2012–2020
• 2014 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit (Octo­ber 28–30th, 2014)