Digital therapeutics pioneer Akili Interactive plans to go public in mid-2022 at a $1B valuation

Pal­i­hapi­tiya-Led SPAC to Merge With Akili in $1 Bil­lion Deal (Bloomberg): Akili Inter­ac­tive, a start­up that has devel­oped a video game to help treat atten­­tion-deficit dis­or­ders in kids, has agreed to go pub­lic through a merg­er with one of Chamath Palihapitiya’s blank-check com­pa­nies. The deal, which con­firms a Bloomberg News report, val­ues the com­bined entity…

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Study: Brain training games could be used to assess cognitive abilities, replace the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE)

___ The Use of Mobile Games to Assess Cog­ni­tive Func­tion of Elder­ly with and with­out Cog­ni­tive Impair­ment (Jour­nal of Alzheimer’s Dis­ease): Abstract: In the past few years numer­ous mobile games have been devel­oped to train the brain. There is a lack of infor­ma­tion about the rela­tion between the scores obtained in these games and the cognitive…

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Why computerized neuropsychological tests will become routine — chemo brain example

Good arti­cle today in the NYT on “chemo brain” — some typ­i­cal short-term and long-term cog­ni­tive con­se­quences of chemother­a­py. The Fog That Fol­lows Chemother­a­py (New York Times) This quote is crit­i­cal — for chemo brain and also for a vari­ety of clin­i­cal con­di­tions that present asso­ci­at­ed cog­ni­tive impair­ments: “Con­trol­ling for brain func­tion before can­cer treat­ment begins…

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Ten Reflections on Cognitive Health and Assessments

Let me sum­ma­rize ten high­lights and reflec­tions from stim­u­lat­ing dis­cus­sions on cog­ni­tive health and assess­ments I have had this month so far. Jan­u­ary 8–9th: Sym­po­sium on Co-Adap­­tive Learn­ing: Adap­tive Tech­nol­o­gy for the Aging (details Here), orga­nized by the Ari­zona State Uni­ver­si­ty’s Cen­ter for Adap­tive Neur­al Sys­tems: 1. Cog­ni­tive health is a crit­i­cal fac­tor in over­all healthcare,…

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Obesity Crisis or Cognitive Crisis?

The arti­cle Clum­sy kids more like­ly to become obese adults: study (CBC)… — “The study was based on tests of about 11,000 peo­ple in Britain who were test­ed for hand con­trol, co-ordi­­na­­tion and clum­si­ness at age sev­en and 11, and were then fol­lowed until age 33.” — “Prof. Scott Mont­gomery of the Karolin­s­ka Insti­tutet in Stockholm…

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