Trust, but verify: How big data can augment brain health clinical research
Can the secrets to human cognition be found in Lumosity’s brain-training games? (Washington Post):
“Google was a pioneer in the field of big data and science a few years ago when it began to publish flu trends based on what people were searching for online. Some of its researchers are now working on a way to pinpoint adverse events with medications based on search data…Much of the initial work with Lumosity’s data aims to confirm or debunk popularly accepted ideas based on past studies, such as how much sleep is needed for a brain to function optimally. But researchers hope that eventually they’ll be able to find patterns or correlations in the numbers that could lead to new insights. For instance, scientists might be able to use the IP addresses on customers’ computers to create a map. When overlaid with information from government agencies or other sources, they might be able to show whether certain neighborhoods with toxic environments contribute to a higher risk of, say, early Parkinson’s disease or dementia, says Richard Ivry of the University of California at Berkeley…
Players can select the brain attribute that they want to exercise, such as memory, attention, speed, flexibility or problem solving, or they can let the program choose for them… Each interaction a user has with Lumosity — such as a response to an arithmetic question, for example, or a click that places chocolate in a customer’s order in the coffee cup game — is logged in the company’s database. Many of Lumosity’s users also fill out survey information about basic demographics and lifestyle choices. All of that data, minus names and other personally identifiable information, is available for researchers to query.”
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