As noted in our Market Report, we expect the field of cognitive training (or "brain fitness") software to grow in a variety of education and health-related areas over the next years. One of the most promising areas in our view: helping children and adults with attention deficits improve brain function to reduce ADHD symptoms.
I am glad to present this in-depth discussion on the results of two recent high-quality scientific studies. Let me start with Dr. Rabiner's conclusion:
"Results from these two cognitive training studies highlight that cognitive training interventions may provide an important complement to traditional medication treatment and behavior therapy. Both studies included appropriate control groups, employed random assignment, and had outcome measures provided by individuals who were "blind" to which condition children were assigned to. They are thus well-designed studies from which scientifically sound conclusions can be drawn. They add to the growing research base that intensive practice and training focused of key cognitive skills can have positive effects that extend beyond the training situation itself."
Without futher ado...enjoy the article!
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Two New Cognitive Training Studies for ADHD Yield Promising Findings
-- By Dr. David Rabiner
Although medication treatment is effective for many children with ADHD, there remains an important need to explore and develop interventions that can complement or even substitute for medication. This is true for a variety of reasons including:
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Press release: Here
-- "Lumos Labs, developer of Lumosity.com, the leading web-based provider of scientifically-tested brain training games, today announced that it has raised $3 million of equity financing from Pequot Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), and existing investors including Michael Dearing. The investor group brings expertise that will catalyze the ongoing development of Lumosity.com and support Lumos Labs’ mission to improve lives by enhancing brain fitness.
-- “Lumos Labs is at the center of a booming interest in cognitive exercise and the emerging science about the remarkable plasticity of the brain, said Amish Jani of Pequot Ventures. Lumosity.com has seen tremendous demand from users and partners alike by leveraging the power of the web to deliver a unique platform for brain fitness.
Great news for the sector. The more tools available for leading mentally stimulating lives, the better we will all be.
Lumosity.com (click Here to get a sense of their games) provides a great user experience at a reasonable cost. From an investor's perspective, we believe Lumos Labs is a very serious contender in the brain fitness space, and it has indeed been executing a very smart online strategy.
Now, I am not sure what "scientifically-tested brain training games" really means. While preparing our Brain Fitness Software Market Report we reviewed all published research on the efficacy behind different programs, and didn't find any for Lumosity (which has some very interesting internal, but not published, data).
We gave Lumosity a score of 2 ouf of 10 in Clinical Validation (with Nintendo Brain Age getting a score of 1, and NovaVision, cleared by the FDA for use with stroke/ TBI patients, getting a 5).
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Cognitive training is showing a tremendous potential to expand working memory, a 
capacity once thought limited and untrainable.
If you have enough working memory to both be processing this information and developing your own thoughts, you may be thinking now, a) what exactly is Working Memory?, and b) why do we even care?. Well, Dr. Bill Klemm answers those questions, and more, below. Please enjoy one of the most insightful articles on the subject we have seen in a long while, which we are proud to bring to SharpBrains readers.
How Well People Think Depends On Working Memory
- By Dr. Bill Klemm
Imagine dialing a phone number by having to look up each digit one at a time in the phone book. Normally, you look up the number and remember all seven digits long enough to get it dialed. Even with one digit at a time, you would have to remember each digit long enough to get it dialed. What if your brain could not even do that! We call this kind of remembering, “working memory,” because that is what the brain works with. Working memory is critical to everyday living.
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A very promising cognitive training study was presented last week by Helena Westerberg at the annual meeting of the CNS: Cognitive Neuroscience Society held in San Francisco, and Dr. David Rabiner brings us the highlights.
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The study was conducted with a general adult population, rather than adults diagnosed with ADHD, as was the case in previous published working memory training studies,
The study was a randomized, controlled trial of working memory training conducted with 55 younger (20-30 years old) and 45 older (60-70 years old) adults. Participants were randomly assigned to receive 5 weeks of active Cogmed Working Memory Training or a placebo training intervention. In the active training group, the difficulty of the working memory training tasks continually adjusted to match the individual's performance. As a result, individuals were consistently challenged to perform at their highest possible level. In the placebo training group, the difficulty level remained constant across the training period such that improvements in working memory were not expected to occur.
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A CDC report estimated that, in 2003, 4.4 million youth ages 4-17 lived with diagnosed ADHD, and 2.5 million of them were receiving medication treatment. Now, which is the core deficit underlying ADHD-so that treatments really address it? and how are ADHD and brain development related? Keep reading...
ADHD & the Nature of Self-Control - Revisiting Barkley's Theory of ADHD
--- By David Rabiner, Ph.D
As implied in the title of his book, ADHD and the Nature of Self-Control
, Dr. Barkley argues that the fundamental deficit in individuals with ADHD is one of self-control, and that problems with attention are a secondary characteristic of the disorder.
Dr. Barkley emphasizes that during the course of development, control over a child's behavior gradually shifts from external sources to being increasingly governed by internal rules and standards. Controlling one's behavior by internal rules and standards is what is meant by the term "self-control".
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Over the last few days we have seen an engaging conversation going on. In a couple of posts, representatives from Posit Science brain fitness gym have left comments that have prompted me to ask a series of detailed questions. I will present those questions in a post, so they are easier to find.
Eric, Henry: please address these questions, so we all contribute to helping consumers and institutions navigate through this emerging landscape of "brain fitness gyms" and separate what is real today from what is promising and may be real tomorrow. Continue Reading »
Reader Theresa Cerulli just forwarded this Letter to the Editor that she had sent to the New York Times and went unpublished. The letter addresses the OpEd mentioned here (pitching physical vs. mental exercise), and refers to the Cogmed working memory training program, whose results have been studied in multiple papers published in top medical and scientific journals.
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Dear Editor:
I applaud Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang for throwing some cold water on the current brain fitness craze in their recent New York Times Magazine Opinion Editorial “Exercise on the Brain.” They are correct in labeling the host of “mental fitness” products that target aging baby boomers as “inspired by science — not to be confused with actually proven by science.” For the last 30 years, terms like “brain plasticity” have been widely and casually used, creating hype that risks drowning out the real breakthroughs that brain researchers are making in this area.
However, I would like to distinguish the “mental fitness” trend that Aamodt and Wang rightly criticize from actual researched-based cognitive training such as the Cogmed program developed in Sweden. Unlike “mental fitness” programs, cognitive training programs focus very narrowly on specific cognitive functions that research has shown to be plastic. This is in stark contrast to compiling a smattering of exercises or activities that are generally thought to be Continue Reading »
One of the companies presenting at our panel on Brain Fitness at Neurotech Industry Conference, May 17th in San Francisco, was Cogmed. They offer a working memory training program focused now on kids with attention deficits. What was exciting in the panel was to hear how Cogmed is helping kids train working memory, Posit Science is helping (mostly) seniors train auditory processing, and there is a growing field starting to provide structured brain exercise to people of all ages with different priorities and needs.
The Chicago Tribune has an article today titled Giving a child a better mind. Quotes:
- "Working memory is the ability to store information in the brain for a short time, typically a few seconds. In daily life, working memory helps people remember instructions, solve problems, control impulses and focus attention."
- "Cogmed Working Memory Training, developed by Swedish brain researcher Dr. Torkel Klingberg, features video game software on an engaging robot interface. The research-validated program has been successful in Europe, and now is being offered in the United States."
- "The program may not apply to everyone with attention deficit, according to Graham, because not all people with ADD have a deficit in working memory. Schools or psychologists can determine whether Continue Reading »
Who has not heard "Use It or Lose It". Now, what is "It"? And, is "It" only one thing or a number of integrated elements, each of which are heavily involved in specific "brain exercises", and all of which are important to maintain Brain Fitness.
Let's review at a glance:
The brain is composed of 3 "brains" or main sub-systems, each named after the evolutionary moment in which the sub-system is believed to have appeared, and after which species we share that structure with.
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A) Neocortex, or Human Brain, is the most recent area, where we perform high-level thinking and complex integrative tasks. Other mammals do have this part too, but in much smaller proportion of the whole brain volume.
B) Limbic System, or Mammalian Brain, critical for emotions and for memory,
C) Cerebellum and Stem, or Reptilian Brain, that regulates basic vital variables such as breathing, heartbeat and motor coordination (Credit for pic: Arnold Keyserling and R.C.L.) |
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B) Limbic system: emotions are generated here, as well as the appetites and urges that help us survive. For instance, the amygdala gets triggered to prepare us to deal with a threatening situation, resulting in our feeling of fear. The hippocampus is key in the formation of memory. (Credit: Sandhills College) |
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A) The Neocortex is composed of
-Frontal Lobes: or the CEO of the Mind, for sophisticated brain functions such as planning and conceptualizing.
-Parietal: deals with movement, the senses, and some forms of recognition
-Temporal: auditory processes and language
-Occipital: visual processing center (credit: Morphonix) |
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When we exercise our brains, we put our Neurons in action. "Cells that fire together wire together", meaning that synapses, or unions between neurons, get solidified the more often the respective neurons "talk" to each other. (Credit: Peter Furstenberg) |
