Neurotherapeutics

Addressing cognitive deficits due to ADHD or leukemia/ brain tumor treatments

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fog brainThe Sci­ence Behind ‘Brain Train­ing’ (The Atlantic):

“Julie Schweitzer, direc­tor of the ADHD Pro­gram at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia in Davis’s MIND Insti­tute, con­duct­ed a ran­dom­ized study of chil­dren diag­nosed with ADHD. When pub­lished in July 2012 in the jour­nal Neu­rother­a­peu­tics, Schweitzer’s study found that chil­dren [Read more…] about Address­ing cog­ni­tive deficits due to ADHD or leukemia/ brain tumor treatments

Study: Adaptive Working Memory Training Can Reduce ADHD-related Off-Task Behavior

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For a num­ber of rea­sons, there remains an impor­tant need to devel­op research sup­port­ed treat­ments for ADHD in addi­tion to med­ica­tion and behav­ior therapy.

Regard­ing med­ica­tion, not all chil­dren ben­e­fit from tak­ing it, some expe­ri­ence intol­er­a­ble side effects, and many con­tin­ue to strug­gle even when med­ica­tion pro­vides some ben­e­fit. Behav­ior ther­a­py can be dif­fi­cult for par­ents and teach­ers [Read more…] about Study: Adap­tive Work­ing Mem­o­ry Train­ing Can Reduce ADHD-relat­ed Off-Task Behavior

Gaming and Neuroscience: Opportunities and Challenges

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A cou­ple weeks ago I attend­ed the Enter­tain­ment Soft­ware and Cog­ni­tive Neu­rother­a­peu­tics Con­fer­ence, ESCoNS, at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia San Fran­cis­co. The speak­ers’ talks were insight­ful, sur­pris­ing, and inspir­ing in many regards. The pur­pose of this meet­ing was to bring togeth­er great minds in a vari­ety of fields from neu­ro­science to game design and to come up with some ideas how to make game based cog­ni­tive train­ing a real­i­ty as an effec­tive ther­a­py for many of today’s most chal­leng­ing dis­or­ders and deficits. Many of the sci­en­tists also thought that game based ther­a­pies for cog­ni­tive deficits could be used as enhance­ment tools for healthy indi­vid­u­als as well. [Read more…] about Gam­ing and Neu­ro­science: Oppor­tu­ni­ties and Challenges