A couple of very interesting recent announcements show (in a military context) how well-targeted brain training can complement and augment existing approaches, both to help “normal” and “clinical” populations, in ways that silo-based, rear-mirror thinking often misses:
U.S. Department of Defense Awards $2 Million to Brain Plasticity Inc. to Study Impact of Brain Training for Traumatic Brain Injuries (press release):
“Brain Plasticity Inc. (BPI), a technology incubator dedicated to the discovery and development of novel technologies that harness the basic principles of brain plasticity to improve the lives of people with neurological and psychiatric disorders, was recently awarded a $2 million grant from the United States Department of Defense.”
“The grant will fund a two-year clinical trial of an internet-based program designed to improve cognitive function in people suffering from cognitive impairment following mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI) as a result of active duty with the United States Military. The award of this grant reflects the tremendous promise of brain-plasticity-based cognitive training technology, which has already shown to be effective in more than a dozen clinical trials in healthy aging, and is now entering clinical trials in schizophrenia and stroke rehabilitation.”
United States Office of Naval Research Recruits Lumosity to Enhance Human Intelligence (press release):
“Lumos Labs today announced it has been selected for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant by the Office of Naval Research, which is responsible for the coordination, execution and promotion of science and technology programs for United States Navy and Marine Corps. The grant is to be dedicated to the development and testing of a mobile application that increases intelligence and cognitive performance – specifically working memory, attention and decision making – in healthy adults. Lumosity will apply the grant to further development of its iPhone application, Brain Trainer, the world’s most popular mobile brain training application with more than 7 million users.”
It will benefit to all of us
Great article, two years is quite a long era, I would love to see better iPhone programs.
Great, I have been using lumosity’s brain training program for a while now and pretty happy with it, but I would love to see it being developed even further!