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Akili Interactive Labs

Building cognitive reserve helps delay memory and thinking decline regardless of genetic or childhood markers

August 30, 2022 by SharpBrains

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing time­ly brain news and a few fun brain teasers to test your per­cep­tu­al and cog­ni­tive skills.

#1. Study: Build­ing cog­ni­tive reserve helps delay mem­o­ry and think­ing decline regard­less of genet­ic or child­hood markers

“While our child­hood can influ­ence our mem­o­ry and think­ing skills lat­er in life, this research under­lines the mes­sage that it’s nev­er too late to take action to sup­port cog­ni­tive health.” — Dr Sara Imari­sio, Head of Strate­gic Ini­tia­tives at Alzheimer’s Research UK

#2. Ful­ly-auto­mat­ed analy­sis of voice recordings–from neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal tests–found to help dif­fer­en­ti­ate nor­mal cog­ni­tion from demen­tia and mild cog­ni­tive impairment

As the researchers point out, “The pro­posed approach offers a ful­ly auto­mat­ed iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of MCI and demen­tia based on a record­ed neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal test, pro­vid­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op a remote screen­ing tool that could be adapt­ed eas­i­ly to any language”

#3. Debunk­ing the “chem­i­cal imbal­ance” the­o­ry yet not throw­ing out the anti­de­pres­sant baby with the bathwater

“Depres­sion is usu­al­ly man­aged effec­tive­ly with anti­de­pres­sants or by talk­ing treat­ments, such as cog­ni­tive behav­iour ther­a­py, despite an incom­plete under­stand­ing of the con­di­tion and how these treat­ments work. We can­not know if treat­ments address the under­ly­ing prob­lem because we haven’t yet iden­ti­fied what that is. To imply that SSRI anti­de­pres­sants may not be worth­while is to mis­un­der­stand an evi­dence base that says the very opposite.”

#4. Q&A with researcher Robb Rut­ledge on men­tal health, expec­ta­tions, deci­sion-mak­ing and hol­i­day planning

“Recent events have a big­ger impact on hap­pi­ness than ear­li­er events, so it can be a good strat­e­gy to save a cou­ple things that have a chance of a big pos­i­tive sur­prise for the last few days of your trip. It could be a nov­el expe­ri­ence that a lot of peo­ple like but you’re not sure what to expect … It prob­a­bly isn’t anoth­er muse­um. Just make sure it’s not some­thing that could get rained out”

#5. How much should you trust Bet­ter­Help, Talk­space, Cere­bral and oth­er men­tal health start-ups tout­ed by celebrities?

“Many U.S. adults aren’t able to find help because of a short­age of ther­a­pists. Near­ly 40% are strug­gling with men­tal health or sub­stance abuse issues, accord­ing to the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Prevention.
So mil­lions of peo­ple are turn­ing to online companies…”

#6. Dig­i­tal men­tal health inter­ven­tion by the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion (WHO) found to low­er anx­i­ety and depres­sion, with improve­ments main­tained at 3?month follow-up

As acknowl­edged “The main lim­i­ta­tion of the cur­rent tri­al is the high dropout rate”, but con­text is key: “Most dis­placed peo­ple with men­tal dis­or­ders in low- and mid­dle-income coun­tries do not receive effec­tive care, and their access to care has dete­ri­o­rat­ed dur­ing the Coro­n­avirus Dis­ease 2019 (COVID-19) pan­dem­ic”. — Inno­va­tion does­n’t need to be per­fect, just better/ cheaper/ more acces­si­ble than alternatives.

#7. Dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics pio­neer Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs goes pub­lic, rais­ing $150M+; trades down 49% first day

Quite dif­fi­cult mar­ket envi­ron­ment for an impor­tant evi­dence-based inno­va­tion — good news is they raised enough funds to test approach in the real world over the next 12–24 months. Let’s see!

#8. Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence (AI) meets Cog­ni­tive Behav­ioral Ther­a­py (CBT): Wysa rais­es $20M to scale up men­tal health chatbot

“Typ­i­cal­ly, access to a men­tal health ser­vice is gat­ed. It is restrict­ed by some kind of diag­no­sis — say­ing only if you are severe enough you will be able to get to speak to a ther­a­pist because obvi­ous­ly ther­a­py is expen­sive and somebody’s got to pay for it” … the app offers “ear­ly engage­ment and a safe space where peo­ple can come in and anony­mous­ly just talk about what’s both­er­ing them.”

Final­ly, here are three quick brain teas­er games to test your per­cep­tu­al and cog­ni­tive skills. Wish­ing you and yours a healthy and stim­u­lat­ing month of September!

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Filed Under: Brain Teasers, Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, SharpBrains Monthly eNewsletter, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Akili Interactive Labs, antidepressants, cognitive behaviour therapy, cognitive-health, cognitive-reserve, dementia, digital mental health, digital therapeutics, mild-cognitive-impairment, neuropsychological-tests, normal cognition

Digital therapeutics pioneer Akili Interactive Labs goes public, raising $150M+; trades down 49% first day

August 23, 2022 by SharpBrains

Akili Inter­ac­tive is the lat­est com­pa­ny to go pub­lic via SPAC deal (Boston Busi­ness Journal):

Boston’s Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs Inc. is the lat­est Mass­a­chu­setts-based com­pa­ny to go pub­lic after com­plet­ing a reverse merg­er — in a year of mar­ket tur­moil that saw few local firms pass­ing the thresh­old between pri­vate and pub­lic status.

Shares of Akili start­ed trad­ing on Mon­day on the Nas­daq Cap­i­tal Mar­ket under the new tick­er sym­bol “AKLI” after the com­pa­ny com­plet­ed its pre­vi­ous­ly announced reverse merg­er with Social Cap­i­tal Suvret­ta Hold­ings Corp. I (Nas­daq: DNAA), a spe­cial pur­pose acqui­si­tion com­pa­ny, or SPAC. [Read more…] about Dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics pio­neer Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs goes pub­lic, rais­ing $150M+; trades down 49% first day

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Akili Interactive Labs, AKLI, cognitive, Cognitive-impairment, digital medicine, digital therapeutics, DNAA, EndeavorRx, neuropsychiatric, neuropsychiatric diseases, SPAC

FDA clears first videogame to be prescribed to kids with ADHD: EndeavorRx by Akili Interactive Labs

June 18, 2020 by SharpBrains

Screen­shot of EndeavorRx

In a land­mark deci­sion, FDA green­lights a video game for kids with ADHD (STAT):

The Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion on Mon­day for the first time gave a green light to a game-based ther­a­peu­tic: a video game meant to be pre­scribed to kids with ADHD.

The game, known as Endeav­or­Rx and devel­oped by Boston-based Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs, can now be mar­ket­ed as a way to improve atten­tion func­tion in kids with ADHD as mea­sured by com­put­er­ized test­ing. Physi­cians can pre­scribe it to chil­dren between the ages of 8 and 12 who have an ADHD diag­no­sis and have demon­strat­ed an issue with attention.

The FDA’s move is a land­mark deci­sion in the emerg­ing dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics sec­tor: In addi­tion to being the first game to be mar­ket­ed as a ther­a­py for any type of con­di­tion, Endeav­or­Rx is the first dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic meant to improve symp­toms asso­ci­at­ed with ADHD, the FDA’s announce­ment said…The game was born in the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, San Fran­cis­co lab of neu­ro­sci­en­tist Adam Gaz­za­ley, and was licensed out by Akili, which pol­ished and test­ed the game in clin­i­cal tri­als. Akili spent the past two years wait­ing on a reg­u­la­to­ry deci­sion from the FDA.

[Read more…] about FDA clears first videogame to be pre­scribed to kids with ADHD: Endeav­or­Rx by Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: 510(k), Adam Gazzaley, adhd, Akili Interactive Labs, computerized testing, De Novo, digital therapeutics, EndeavorRx, FDA, game-based therapeutic, TOVA, videogame

Large study finds positive yet mixed results from Akili’s digital therapeutic for kids with ADHD

February 25, 2020 by SharpBrains

__

Full pub­li­ca­tion of piv­otal tri­al data out­lines Akil­i’s case for FDA reg­u­la­tion (Mobi­Health­News):

“A full tran­script of STARS-ADHD — the piv­otal tri­al of Akili Interactive’s video game-like pedi­atric atten­tion deficit treat­ment — has been pub­lished in The Lancet Dig­i­tal Health jour­nal, pro­vid­ing onlook­ers a clear view of data fuel­ing the dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic company’s pend­ing FDA sub­mis­sion [Read more…] about Large study finds pos­i­tive yet mixed results from Akili’s dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic for kids with ADHD

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Filed Under: Attention & ADD/ADHD, Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: adhd, ADHD-medication, Akili, Akili Interactive, Akili Interactive Labs, AKL-T01, behavioral, cognitive, digital health, digital therapeutics, pediatric ADHD, Project EVO, TOVA API, treatment, video-games

How to address privacy, ethical and regulatory issues: Examples in cognitive enhancement, depression and ADHD

July 23, 2019 by SharpBrains

How to address pri­va­cy, eth­i­cal and reg­u­la­to­ry issues: Exam­ples in cog­ni­tive enhance­ment, depres­sion and ADHD from Sharp­Brains

We hope you enjoy this slid­edeck sup­port­ing a great ses­sion at the 2019 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: The Future of Brain Health (March 7–9th).  Full record­ings are avail­able for pur­chase here.

1–2.30pm. How to address pri­va­cy, eth­i­cal and reg­u­la­to­ry issues: Exam­ples in cog­ni­tive enhance­ment, depres­sion and ADHD 

  • Dr. Karen Rom­melfanger, Direc­tor of the Neu­roethics Pro­gram at Emory University
  • Dr. Anna Wexler, Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor at the Perel­man School of Med­i­cine at UPenn
  • Jacque­line Stud­er, Senior VP and Gen­er­al Coun­sel of Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs
  • Chaired by: Kei­th Epstein, Health­care Prac­tice Leader at Blue Heron

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: adhd, Akili Interactive Labs, Blue Heron, cognitive-enhancement, depression, Emory-University, ethics, Neuroethics, privacy, UPenn

10+ pioneers confirmed to Speak @ 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit (May 7–9th)

February 19, 2019 by SharpBrains

_______________

We are proud to announce the first wave of con­firmed Speak­ers to share their inno­v­a­tive work and insights at the 2019 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: The Future of Brain Health, to be held May 7–9th, 2019:

Dr. Tom Insel, Co-founder and Pres­i­dent of Mind­strong Health
Dr. Ainslie Hatch, Direc­tor of Dig­i­tal Ther­a­peu­tics at Otsu­ka Pharmaceutical
David Klein, CEO of Click Ther­a­peu­tics
Char­lie Hartwell, Oper­at­ing Part­ner at The Bridge Builders Collaborative
Louis Gagnon, CEO of Total Brain
Dr. Anna Wexler, sci­ence writer and PI of the Wexler Lab at UPenn
Dr. Eddie Mar­tuc­ci, Founder and CEO of Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs
Ana Maiques, CEO of Neu­ro­electrics
Jan Samzelius, Founder and CEO of Neu­raMetrix
Dr. Peter White­house, Pro­fes­sor of Neu­rol­o­gy at Case West­ern Reserve University
Kito Toset­ti, CEO of CTF MEG International
Ariel Garten, Founder and Chief Evan­ge­lism Offi­cer of Inter­aX­on
Alvaro Fer­nan­dez, CEO and Edi­tor-in-Chief of Sharp­Brains

We can’t wait to discuss and help shape the Future of Brain Health!

_______________

Imag­ine your smart­phone can detect ear­ly signs of anx­i­ety, depres­sion or Parkinson’s Dis­ease — would you like to know? Who else should know … and not know?

Imag­ine a videogame cleared by the FDA to treat ADHD or sub­stance abuse — how will doc­tors pre­scribe it, patients access it, and insur­ers pay for it?

Imag­ine being respon­si­ble for the health & well­ness of your orga­ni­za­tion — how will you nav­i­gate the grow­ing toolk­it of evi­dence-based inter­ven­tions such as exercise/ meditation/ sleep apps/ cog­ni­tive therapies/ biofeedback/ tDCS?

Imag­ine invest­ing $100 mil­lion to help accel­er­ate brain research and appli­ca­tions — how would you ensure that respon­si­ble devel­op­ment meets wise adop­tion?

Imag­ine a free annu­al brain check-up — who should take it, and how could it help prevent/ delay/ treat cog­ni­tive decline and Alzheimer’s Disease?

_______________

LEARN MORE HERE

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Akili Interactive Labs, Bridge Builders Collaborative, Case-Western-Reserve-University, Click Therapeutics, CTF MEG International, Interaxon, Mindstrong Health, NeuraMetrix, Neuroelectrics, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, sharpbrains, Total Brain, Wexler Lab

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