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Top 10 High­lights: State of the Brain Fit­ness Soft­ware Mar­ket 2009

1) Growth mar­ket: Con­sumers, seniors’ com­mu­ni­ties and insur­ance providers drove year on year sus­tained growth, from $225m in 2007 to $265m in 2008. Rev­enues may reach between $1 bil­lion to $5 bil­lion by 2015, depend­ing on how impor­tant prob­lems (Pub­lic Aware­ness, Nav­i­gat­ing Claims, Research, Health Cul­ture, Lack of Assess­ment) are addressed.

2) Increased inter­est and con­fu­sion: 61% of respon­dents Strong­ly Agree with the state­ment “Addressing cog­ni­tive and brain health should be a health­care priority.” But, 65% Agree/Strongly Agree “I don’t real­ly know what to expect from prod­ucts mak­ing brain claims.”

3) Invest­ment in R&D seeds future growth: Land­mark invest­ments by insur­ance providers and gov­ern­ment-fund­ed research insti­tutes test­ing new brain fit­ness appli­ca­tions plant­ed new seeds for future growth.

4) Becom­ing stan­dard in res­i­den­tial facil­i­ties: Over 700 res­i­den­tial facil­i­ties – most­ly Inde­pen­dent and Assist­ed Liv­ing facil­i­ties and CCRCs – have installed com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive train­ing programs.

5) Cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion: Con­sumers seem more sat­is­fied with com­put­er-based prod­ucts than paper-based options. But, sat­is­fac­tion dif­fers by prod­uct. When asked “I got real val­ue for my money”, results were as fol­lows: Lumosity.com (65% Agree), Puz­zle Books (60%), Posit Sci­ence (52%), Nin­ten­do (51%) agreed. Posit Sci­ence (53% Agree) and Lumosity.com (51%) do bet­ter than Puz­zle Books (39%) and Nin­ten­do (38%) at “I have seen the results I wanted.”

6) Assess­ments: Increas­ing adop­tion of com­put­er-based cog­ni­tive assess­ments to base­line and track cog­ni­tive func­tions over time in mil­i­tary, sports, and clin­i­cal con­texts. The Alzheimer’s Foun­da­tion of Amer­i­ca now advo­cates for wide­spread cog­ni­tive screen­ings after 65–75.

7) Spe­cif­ic com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive train­ing and videogames have been shown to improve brain func­tions, but the key ques­tions are, “Which ones”, and “Who needs what when?”

8) Aggres­sive mar­ket­ing claims are cre­at­ing con­fu­sion and skep­ti­cism, result­ing in a dis­tract­ing con­tro­ver­sy between two mis­lead­ing extremes: (a) “buying prod­uct XYZ can reju­ve­nate your brain Y years” or (b) “those prod­ucts don’t work; just do one more cross­word puzzle.” The upcom­ing book The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness aims to help con­sumers nav­i­gate these claims.

9) Devel­op­ers can be clas­si­fied into four groups, based on our Mar­ket and Research Momen­tum analy­sis: we find 4 Lead­ers, 8 High Poten­tials, 3 Cross­words 2.0, and 6 Wait & See com­pa­nies.

10) Increased dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion: Lead­ing com­pa­nies are bet­ter defin­ing their val­ue propo­si­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion chan­nels to reach spe­cif­ic seg­ments such as retire­ment com­mu­ni­ties, schools, or health­care providers.

Table of Contents

Edi­to­r­i­al

Exec­u­tive Summary

Chap­ter 1. A Bird’s‑Eye View of the Grow­ing Field
— Mar­ket size, seg­ments and trends
— High­lights of 2008
— Demand: insur­ance com­pa­nies join con­sumers and seniors’ communities
— Sci­ence: how to sep­a­rate real­i­ty vs. hope vs. hype
— Sup­ply: significant ven­ture and pol­i­cy-dri­ven investments
— Pol­i­cy: cog­ni­tive health on the government’s radar screen
— Nav­i­gat­ing the landscape
— Inter­view with Tom War­den – Cog­ni­tive train­ing for dri­ver safety
— Inter­view with Dr. William Reich­man – Update from Baycrest’s Cen­tre for Brain Fitness
— Essay by Dr. Torkel Kling­berg – Deal­ing with our overflowing brains

Chap­ter 2. Mar­ket Sur­vey on Beliefs, Atti­tudes, Pur­chase Habits
— Jan­u­ary 2009: sur­vey of 2,000+ deci­sion-mak­ers and ear­ly adopters
— Key take-aways
— Beliefs and attitudes
— Like­li­hood of ten 2015 predictions
— Pur­chase his­to­ry and eval­u­a­tion criteria
— Over­all cus­tomer satisfaction
— Lead­ing prod­ucts by aware­ness, and demo­graph­ic comparison
— Cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion for four top products
— Most impor­tant bot­tle­necks for growth
— Sur­vey details and demo­graph­ic information

Chap­ter 3. The Emerg­ing Com­pet­i­tive Landscape
— Nav­i­gat­ing the landscape
— The Research-Mar­ket Momen­tum Matrix
— Sum­ma­ry table: SharpBrains’ Take, Research-Mar­ket Momentum
— Lead­ers: High Mar­ket & Research Momentum
— High Poten­tials: High Research Momentum
— Cross­words 2.0: High Mar­ket Momentum
— Wait & See: Nei­ther High Mar­ket or Research Momentum
— Inno­v­a­tive Ser­vice Models

Chap­ter 4. The Sci­ence for Brain Fit­ness and Cog­ni­tive Health
— Recent Find­ings in Context
— Debunk­ing 10 typ­i­cal myths
— Research Exec­u­tive Briefs: Sum­ma­ry Table
— Dr. Joshua Stein­er­man (Einstein-Montefiore): Neu­ro­pro­tec­tion via cog­ni­tive activities
— Dr. Jer­ri Edwards (South Flori­da): Cog­ni­tive aging and driving
— Dr. Susanne Jaeg­gi and Dr. Mar­tin Buschkuehl (Bern, Michi­gan): Work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing and fl uid intelligence
— Dr. Torkel Kling­berg (Karolin­s­ka): Work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing, dopamine, and math
— Dr. Liz Zelin­s­ki (UC Davis): Audi­to­ry pro­cess­ing training
— Dr. David Vance (UAB): Speed-of-pro­cess­ing training
— Dr. Jer­ri Edwards (South Flori­da): Cog­ni­tive train­ing for healthy aging and driving
— Dr. Daphne Bave­li­er & Dr. Shawn Green (Rochester): Action videogames and atten­tion­al skills
— Dr. Arthur Kramer (Illi­nois): Strat­e­gy videogames and exec­u­tive functions
— Dr. Yaakov Stern (Colum­bia): The cog­ni­tive reserve and neuroimaging
— Dr. David Rabin­er (Duke): Objec­tive assess­ments for ADHD
— Inter­view with Dr. Mar­tin Buschkuehl: Cross­word puz­zles vs. cog­ni­tive training

Chap­ter 5. Con­sumers – Adopt­ing Cross­words 2.0?
— Key trends and players
— Nin­ten­do Brain Age case study: cre­at­ing a con­sumer category
— PBS/ NPR drove pub­lic aware­ness –including sur­pris­ing claims
— Emerg­ing plat­forms: online, iPhone
— Con­verg­ing trends: exer­cise, gam­ing, life­long learning
— Check­list for con­sumers eval­u­at­ing products
— A new resource: The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fitness
— Inter­view with Dr. Arthur Kramer – The need for walk­ing book clubs

Chap­ter 6: Health­care and Insur­ance Providers — A Cul­ture of Cog­ni­tive Health
— Key trends and players
— Becom­ing main­stream in seniors housing
— Case stud­ies: Erick­son, Senior Star, Belmont
— Insur­ance providers lead major cog­ni­tive health initiatives
— Check­list for providers select­ing brain fi tness programs
— Emerg­ing clin­i­cal appli­ca­tions of cog­ni­tive training
— Alzheimer’s Foun­da­tion of America’s advo­cates for cog­ni­tive screening
— Effect of drugs (includ­ing over the counter ones) on cog­ni­tive decline
— Inno­v­a­tive process to define stan­dard out­comes: schiz­o­phre­nia MATRICS project
— Inter­view with Dr. Gary Kennedy: Ask­ing the right ques­tions to encour­age compliance
— Inter­view with Dr. McCleary: A mul­ti-pronged approach to brain health

Chap­ter 7: K12 School Sys­tems- Ready for Change?
— Key trends and players
— What Works Clearinghouse’s take on Fast For­Word and Houghton Mifflin´ Earobics
— The poten­tial for train­ing exec­u­tive functions
— The poten­tial for math performance
— The Nin­ten­do “controversy” in the UK
— Inter­view with Dr. Michael Pos­ner — What Is Atten­tion and How It can be Trained

Chap­ter 8: Mil­i­tary, Sports Teams, Com­pa­nies – Brain-Per­for­mance Link
— Key trends and players
— New mil­i­tary pol­i­cy to detect Trau­mat­ic Brain Injury (TBI)
— Auto­mat­ed Neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal Assess­ment Met­rics (ANAM)
— Cog­ni­tive base­lines wide­ly used by sports teams
— Land­mark ini­tia­tive by the USA Hock­ey League
— Cog­ni­tive fitness at work, by the Dana Foun­da­tion and the Con­fer­ence Board
— Inter­view with Lee Woodruff: Help­ing vet­er­ans recov­er from TBI

Chap­ter 9: Future Direc­tions – Pro­jec­tions and Bottlenecks
— Trends to watch: 2009–2015
— 2015 growth projections
— Bot­tle­necks and priorities

List of Figures

Exec­u­tive Summary
1: Mar­ket report at a glance

Chap­ter 1: A Bird’s‑Eye View of the Grow­ing Field
1.1: Brain fitness mar­ket by segment
1.2: Snap­shot of cus­tomer segments
1.3: Brain fitness growth drivers
1.4: Aug­ment­ing Cognition
1.5: Main fund­ing events in 2008
1.6: Lev­el of clin­i­cal val­i­da­tion: prod­uct and domain
1.7: Type of cus­tomer and deliv­ery vehicle

Chap­ter 2: Mar­ket Sur­vey on Beliefs, Atti­tudes, Pur­chase Habits
2.1: Beliefs and attitudes
2.2: Like­li­hood of ten 2015 predictions
2.3: Pur­chase history
2.4: Eval­u­a­tion criteria
2.5: Over­all Cus­tomer Satisfaction
2.6: Top-of-mind products
2.7: Demo­graph­ic comparison
2.8: Cus­tomer Sat­is­fac­tion for four top products
2.9: Most Impor­tant Problem
2.10: Demo­graph­ics: source of interest
2.11: Demo­graph­ics: age
2.12: Demo­graph­ics: gender
2.13: Demo­graph­ics: house­hold income
2.14: Demo­graph­ics: edu­ca­tion level

Chap­ter 3: The Emerg­ing Com­pet­i­tive Landscape
3.1: The Research-Mar­ket Momen­tum Matrix
3.2: Sum­ma­ry Table: SharpBrains’ Take
Chap­ter 4: The Sci­ence for Brain Fit­ness and Cog­ni­tive Health
4.1: Debunk­ing 10 myths
4.2: Research Exec­u­tive Briefs: Sum­ma­ry Table

Chap­ter 5: Con­sumers – Adopt­ing Cross­words 2.0?
5.1: Rev­enue growth in con­sumer segment
5.2: Pro­ject­ed US pop­u­la­tion growth over 55 years old (2000–2030)

Chap­ter 6: Health­care and Insur­ance Providers – A Cul­ture of Cog­ni­tive Health
6.1: Rev­enue growth in health­care & insur­ance segment
6.2: Inci­dence and Annu­al Costs of Brain and Ner­vous Sys­tem Disorders
6.3: Com­par­i­son of inter­ven­tion options
6.4: Expect­ed preva­lence of Alzheimer’s in US (2000–2050)

Chap­ter 7: K12 School Sys­tems- Ready for Change?
7.1: Rev­enue growth in K12 schools segments

Chap­ter 8: Mil­i­tary, Sports Teams, Com­pa­nies – Brain-Per­for­mance Link
8.1: Rev­enue growth in mil­i­tary & sports segment

Chap­ter 9: Future Direc­tions – Pro­jec­tions and Bottlenecks
9.1: Range of Pro­jec­tions for 2015

Com­pa­nies

Advanced Brain Technologies
Applied Cog­ni­tive Engineering
Brain Cen­ter America
Brain Resource Company
CNS Vital Signs
Cogmed
CogniFit
Cog­ni­tive Drug Research
Cogstate
Dakim
Houghton Mifflin
Learn­ing Enhance­ment Corporation
LearningRX
Lex­ia Learning
Lumos Labs
Mar­bles: The Brain Store
MyBrainTrainer
Nintendo
NovaVision
Posit Science
Sci­en­tif­ic Brain Training
Sci­en­tif­ic Learning
TransAnalytics
VibrantBrains
Vig­or­ous Mind
Viv­i­ty Labs