A cou­ple of very inter­est­ing recent announce­ments show (in a mil­i­tary con­text) how well-targeted brain train­ing can com­ple­ment and aug­ment exist­ing approaches, both to help “nor­mal” and “clin­i­cal” pop­u­la­tions, in ways that silo-based, rear-mirror think­ing often misses:

U.S. Depart­ment of Defense Awards $2 Mil­lion to Brain Plas­tic­ity Inc. to Study Impact of Brain Train­ing for Trau­matic Brain Injuries (press release):

“Brain Plas­tic­ity Inc. (BPI), a tech­nol­ogy incu­ba­tor ded­i­cated to the dis­cov­ery and devel­op­ment of novel tech­nolo­gies that har­ness the basic prin­ci­ples of brain plas­tic­ity to improve the lives of peo­ple with neu­ro­log­i­cal and psy­chi­atric dis­or­ders, was recently awarded a $2 mil­lion grant from the United States Depart­ment of Defense.”

“The grant will fund a two-year clin­i­cal trial of an internet-based pro­gram designed to improve cog­ni­tive func­tion in peo­ple suf­fer­ing from cog­ni­tive impair­ment fol­low­ing mild trau­matic brain injuries (TBI) as a result of active duty with the United States Mil­i­tary.  The award of this grant reflects the tremen­dous promise of brain-plasticity-based cog­ni­tive train­ing tech­nol­ogy, which has already shown to be effec­tive in more than a dozen clin­i­cal tri­als in healthy aging, and is now enter­ing clin­i­cal tri­als in schiz­o­phre­nia and stroke rehabilitation.”

United States Office of Naval Research Recruits Lumos­ity to Enhance Human Intel­li­gence (press release):

“Lumos Labs today announced it has been selected for a Small Busi­ness Inno­va­tion Research (SBIR) grant by the Office of Naval Research, which is respon­si­ble for the coor­di­na­tion, exe­cu­tion and pro­mo­tion of sci­ence and tech­nol­ogy pro­grams for United States Navy and Marine Corps. The grant is to be ded­i­cated to the devel­op­ment and test­ing of a mobile appli­ca­tion that increases intel­li­gence and cog­ni­tive per­for­mance – specif­i­cally work­ing mem­ory, atten­tion and deci­sion mak­ing – in healthy adults. Lumos­ity will apply the grant to fur­ther devel­op­ment of its iPhone appli­ca­tion, Brain Trainer, the world’s most pop­u­lar mobile brain train­ing appli­ca­tion with more than 7 mil­lion users.”

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