UC study finds near-transfer of cognitive training to be necessary (yet not sufficient) for far-transfer, broader benefits

Who ben­e­fits from brain train­ing, and why? (UCI release): If you are skilled at play­ing puz­zles on your smart­phone or tablet, what does it say about how fast you learn new puz­zles, or more broad­ly, how well can you focus in school or at work? In the lan­guage of psy­chol­o­gists, does “near trans­fer” pre­dict “far…

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Digital therapeutics pioneer Akili Interactive plans to go public in mid-2022 at a $1B valuation

Pal­i­hapi­tiya-Led SPAC to Merge With Akili in $1 Bil­lion Deal (Bloomberg): Akili Inter­ac­tive, a start­up that has devel­oped a video game to help treat atten­­tion-deficit dis­or­ders in kids, has agreed to go pub­lic through a merg­er with one of Chamath Palihapitiya’s blank-check com­pa­nies. The deal, which con­firms a Bloomberg News report, val­ues the com­bined entity…

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Study: Why Super Mario 3D World may train your brain better than Angry Birds

Play­ing 3‑D video games can boost mem­o­ry for­ma­tion, UCI study finds (UCI News): “…Craig Stark and Dane Clemen­son of UCI’s Cen­ter for the Neu­ro­bi­ol­o­gy of Learn­ing & Mem­o­ry recruit­ed non-gamer col­lege stu­dents to play either a video game with a pas­sive, two-dimen­­sion­al envi­ron­ment (“Angry Birds”) or one with an intri­cate, 3‑D set­ting (“Super Mario 3D World”)…

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Trend: Harnessing biometrics and cognitive training to improve athletic performance

— Is Cog­ni­tive Train­ing the Next Fron­tier in Sports? (iQ by Intel): “The shift to quan­ti­ta­tive analy­sis of so-called ath­lete intan­gi­bles — data pre­vi­ous­ly unat­tain­able before track­ing devices pro­vid­ed empir­i­cal evi­dence — is replac­ing gut instinct and guess­work in sports…the vol­un­teers spent a half hour play­ing a unique video game that record­ed their phys­i­o­log­i­cal reac­tions to 

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To treat depression, we will likely combine neuroplasticity-based brain training games with antidepressants

Com­put­er Games Bet­ter Than Med­ica­tion in Treat­ing Elder­ly Depres­sion (Live Sci­ence): “Com­put­er games could help in treat­ing old­er peo­ple with depres­sion who haven’t been helped by anti­de­pres­sant drugs or oth­er treat­ments for the disorder…In a study of 11 old­er patients, researchers found play­ing cer­tain com­put­er games was just as effec­tive at reduc­ing symp­toms of depres­sion as 

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