Cogmed in the Chicago Tribune

One of the com­pa­nies pre­sent­ing at our pan­el on Brain Fit­ness at Neu­rotech Indus­try Con­fer­ence, May 17th in San Fran­cis­co, was Cogmed. They offer a work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing pro­gram focused now on kids with atten­tion deficits. What was excit­ing in the pan­el was to hear how Cogmed is help­ing kids train work­ing mem­o­ry, Posit Sci­ence is help­ing (most­ly) seniors train audi­to­ry pro­cess­ing, and there is a grow­ing field start­ing to pro­vide struc­tured brain exer­cise to peo­ple of all ages with dif­fer­ent pri­or­i­ties and needs.

The Chicago Tri­bune has an arti­cle today titled Giv­ing a child a bet­ter mind. Quotes:

  • Work­ing mem­o­ry is the abil­i­ty to store infor­ma­tion in the brain for a short time, typ­i­cal­ly a few sec­onds. In dai­ly life, work­ing mem­o­ry helps peo­ple remem­ber instruc­tions, solve prob­lems, con­trol impuls­es and focus attention.”
  • Cogmed Work­ing Mem­o­ry Train­ing, devel­oped by Swedish brain researcher Dr. Torkel Kling­berg, fea­tures video game soft­ware on an engag­ing robot inter­face. The research-val­i­dat­ed pro­gram has been suc­cess­ful in Europe, and now is being offered in the Unit­ed States.”
  • The pro­gram may not apply to every­one with atten­tion deficit, accord­ing to Gra­ham, because not all peo­ple with ADD have a deficit in work­ing mem­o­ry. Schools or psy­chol­o­gists can deter­mine whether chil­dren are can­di­dates for Cogmed.”
  • The way Becky remem­bers how things should be done has trans­lat­ed into math and spelling,” Deb­by said. “Becky has also devel­oped a tremen­dous sense of patience when tak­ing a test. She takes her time. She does­n’t allow any­body to intim­i­date her if oth­ers are done first.”
  • Because Beck­y’s pro­cess­ing has become much clear­er, her bed­room is neater too, Deb­by added. “She remem­bers where she puts things. She now has an innate sense of organization.”

For more infor­ma­tion, you can check out Cogmed web­site and our inter­views with

  • Dr. Torkel Kling­berg, pro­fes­sor at Karolin­s­ka Insti­tute, and direc­tor of the Devel­op­men­tal Cog­ni­tive Neu­ro­science Lab, part of the Stock­holm Brain Institute.
  • Dr. Bradley Gib­son, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of psy­chol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Notre Dame.
  • Prof. David Rabin­er, Senior Research Sci­en­tist and the Direc­tor of Psy­chol­o­gy and Neu­ro­science Under­grad­u­ate Stud­ies at Duke University.

About SharpBrains

SHARPBRAINS is an independent think-tank and consulting firm providing services at the frontier of applied neuroscience, health, leadership and innovation.
SHARPBRAINS es un think-tank y consultoría independiente proporcionando servicios para la neurociencia aplicada, salud, liderazgo e innovación.

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