Top 10 Brain Training Trends — Putting our Cognitive Reserve to Work

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Yes­ter­day I had the chance to chat with Yaakov Stern, lead­ing Cog­ni­tive Reserve researcher at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty, and then with a group of 25 life­long learn­ers in Ari­zona who attend­ed a brain fit­ness class (hel­lo, Robert and friends!) based on our con­sumer guide The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness. On reflec­tion, I found both con­ver­sa­tions to be very stim­u­lat­ing for the same rea­son: they were for­ward-look­ing, focused not so much on sta­tus quo but on how emerg­ing research, tech­nol­o­gy and trends may impact our soci­ety and lives in years to come. Let’s con­tin­ue the con­ver­sa­tion. Let me share the 10 main trends that we analyzed/ fore­cast­ed in our book, and then ask you, sharp read­ers, to add your own 2 cents to the discussion.

1. We pre­dict an increased empha­sis on brain main­te­nance in loca­tions rang­ing from retire­ment com­mu­ni­ties to gyms. As a com­put­er-savvy baby boomer pop­u­la­tion looks for ways to stay men­tal­ly fit, brain fit­ness, or brain train­ing, is becom­ing part of their vocab­u­lary and concern.

2. Phys­i­cal and men­tal exer­cise will be bet­ter inte­grat­ed. Phys­i­cal exer­cise has been shown to increase the rate of neu­ro­ge­n­e­sis, where­as men­tal exer­cise helps ensure the sur­vival of any new­ly cre­at­ed neu­rons. Today both activ­i­ties usu­al­ly take place in very dif­fer­ent set­tings: the for­mer, in health clubs, the lat­er, in uni­ver­si­ties. We pre­dict that the bor­ders between them will become more dif­fuse. Expect new pro­grams such as brain fit­ness pod­casts that allow us to train work­ing mem­o­ry as we jog or exer­cise bikes with built-in brain games.

3. Watch for a broad gov­ern­ment ini­tia­tive, sim­i­lar to the one JFK led, to increase the pub­lic aware­ness of the need for brain fit­ness. It is becom­ing more wide­ly under­stood by the med­ical and pol­i­cy com­mu­ni­ty that a com­bi­na­tion of phys­i­cal exer­cise, nutri­tion, men­tal exer­cise and stress man­age­ment can help us main­tain our brain health as we age. As politi­cians and pol­i­cy mak­ers look for ways to delay the onset of Alzheimer-relat­ed symp­toms of our aging pop­u­la­tion, new ini­tia­tives may be launched.

4. Bet­ter and more wide­ly avail­able assess­ments of cog­ni­tive func­tion will serve as objec­tive base­lines to mea­sure the impact of cog­ni­tive train­ing inter­ven­tions. There will also like­ly be bet­ter diag­nos­tic tests to iden­ti­fy ear­ly Alzheimer’s symp­toms, for exam­ple. Reli­able diag­nos­tic assess­ments of cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties will help move this field for­ward just as jump­ing on a scale tells you if your phys­i­cal fit­ness and diet pro­gram is working.

5. Improved com­put­er-based tools will come to mar­ket. The grow­ing pipeline of research stud­ies will enable the mar­ket lead­ers and new entrants to refine exist­ing tools and devise new ones. More clin­i­cal stud­ies will show the ben­e­fits of brain fit­ness pro­grams to address spe­cif­ic clin­i­cal con­di­tions and learn­ing disabilities.

6. Low tech options will play an increas­ing role in the brain fit­ness field. Already, increas­ing research is show­ing the cog­ni­tive val­ue and brain plas­tic­i­ty impact of inter­ven­tions such as med­i­ta­tion and cog­ni­tive ther­a­py. More research and wider appli­ca­tions will help refine our under­stand­ing of when and how they can be most helpful.

7. Doc­tors and phar­ma­cists will help patients nav­i­gate through the over­whelm­ing range of avail­able prod­ucts and inter­pret the results of cog­ni­tive assess­ments. This will require sig­nif­i­cant pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment efforts, giv­en that most doc­tors today were trained under a very dif­fer­ent under­stand­ing of the brain than the one we have today.

8. Insur­ance com­pa­nies will intro­duce incen­tives for mem­bers to encour­age healthy aging. Many insur­ance plans today include rewards for mem­bers who, for exam­ple, vol­un­tar­i­ly take health-relat­ed ques­tion­naires that enable them to iden­ti­fy steps to take to improve health. Increas­ing­ly, brain-relat­ed lifestyle fac­tors will become part of these incen­tivized interventions.

9. Invest­ments in new cog­ni­tive inter­ven­tions for the U.S. mil­i­tary will be com­mer­cial­ized. As the mil­i­tary increas­ing­ly funds research to improve the diag­nos­tic and treat­ment of prob­lems such as PTSD and TBI, the result­ing prod­ucts will ulti­mate­ly find com­mer­cial uses.

10. Brain train­ing will be added to cor­po­rate well­ness and lead­er­ship ini­tia­tives. Large employ­ers with exist­ing cor­po­rate well­ness and lead­er­ship pro­grams will intro­duce brain fit­ness spe­cif­ic pro­grams aimed not only at improved health out­comes but also at increased pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and cog­ni­tive per­for­mance in the workplace..

Which pre­dic­tion sounds more sur­pris­ing? which one would you add? how could we refine them?

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Comments

  1. T. Lavon Lawrence says

    An excel­lent list of pre­dic­tions based on cur­rent trends. I’m very excit­ed about the meld­ing of phys­i­cal and men­tal fit­ness, and very hap­py about your empha­siz­ing the fact that phys­i­cal exer­cise indeed results in neu­ro­ge­n­e­sis, but that new growth is sup­port­ed and main­tained through men­tal fit­ness, because the brain works under a “USE IT OR LOSE IT” stan­dard, as do phys­i­cal mus­cles. Your take on Insur­ance Com­pa­nies is near-under­stat­ed. I intu­it that prof­it-hun­gry com­pa­nies will spear­head and lob­by for major brain fit­ness atten­tion as they find a way for some­body else to pay for it while at the same time hav­ing them­selves man­dat­ed into the mix to gen­er­ate rev­enue. Great article.