On building better brains at any age, treating Depression vs. Dementia, emerging neurotechnologies, psychedelics, and more

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing eleven new research find­ings and inno­v­a­tive resources for life­long cog­ni­tive and brain health. #1. Debate: Are depres­sion and demen­tia two sides of the same coin? And, if they are, how to best approach treat­ment? #2. Either way, the ear­li­er the bet­ter, but it’s nev­er too late: New…

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Akili Interactive Labs raises $160M in equity and debt to transform cognitive healthcare via prescription videogame treatments

Akili rais­es $110m to build its dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics pipeline (phar­mafo­rum): Endeav­or­Rx became the first and so far only approved pre­scrip­tion video game treat­ment in the US when it was cleared by the FDA last year to treat atten­­tion-deficit hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD), and has also been giv­en a green light in Europe.

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Can biofeedback-based videogames help children better manage stress? Magellan Health and Mightier secure $2 million NIMH grant to investigate

Might­i­er and Mag­el­lan Health Launch NIMH-Fund­ed Research to Improve Out­comes in Chil­dren’s Men­tal Health through the Use of Video Games (press release): Might­i­er, provider of a ground-break­ing video game sys­tem for teach­ing chil­dren emo­tion­al reg­u­la­tion, today announced the com­pa­ny has been award­ed a $2 mil­lion grant from the Nation­al Insti­tute of Men­tal Health (NIMH) to…

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Magellan Health is testing biofeedback videogame Mightier to help children better self-regulate stress and behavioral health

Mag­el­lan Health pilot­ing Might­ier’s video game plat­form for emo­tion­al reg­u­la­tion train­ing (Mobi­Health­News): Scotts­dale, Ari­­zona-based Mag­el­lan Health announced today that it has launched a pilot of Boston Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal spin-out Neu­ro­mo­tion Labs’ Might­i­er, a biofeed­back video game plat­form designed to help chil­dren reg­u­late their emotions.

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

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,…

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Akili Interactive Labs raises $30.5 million to develop FDA-approved brain training videogame for ADHD

. Videogame Mak­er Seeks to Treat ADHD (The Wall Street Jour­nal): “Doc­tors don’t usu­al­ly pre­scribe videogame play. But one com­pa­ny, which has just raised $30.5 mil­lion from ven­­ture-cap­i­­tal investors, hopes to change that. Boston-based Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs Inc. is devel­op­ing a videogame it believes could replace pills as a treat­ment for atten­­tion-deficit hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty disorder.

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