Today I had a great conversation with Martin Buschkuehl, one of the University 
of Michigan’s Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab researchers involved in the cognitive training study that has received much media attention (New York Times, Wired, Science News...) since late April, when the study was published at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Reference: Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Jonides, J., & Perrig, W. J. (2008). Improving Fluid Intelligence With Training on Working Memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(19), 6829-6833 (You can read it here, with subscription).
Before you keep reading, let me clarify a couple of terms:
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Salon.com published yesterday a thought-provoking article focused on Posit Science's Brain Fitness Program, titled Buff Up Your Brain, that combined a) some pretty good analysis and great points about that specific program and justifiable (to a point) criticism of the commercial tone of a recent PBS Special, with b) the error of confusing a tree with the forest, that led the author to make several unwarranted claims regarding the field.
Computerized cognitive training has been around since way before Posit Science, and will be here way beyond Posit Science (and SharpBrains, and Salon.com), and their auditory processing product-featured in the PBS Special- is not, in our view, the most particularly impressive example. Well-directed cognitive exercise can enhance mental skills and transfer to real-life outcomes, acting as a good complementary tool, when used properly, to other lifestyle options and tools.
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Driving as Next Brain Fitness Application?
Last month, at the MIT/ SmartSilvers event where we presented our Brain Fitness Market Report, we discussed what specific applications, beyond the current emphasis on healthy 
aging, might take computerized cognitive training to a new level.
Assessing and improving driving skills would be a top candidate, given both the well-defined nature of the need and the appearance of programs with growing evidence (both scientific and real-world) behind.
The New York Times Asks...
Along these lines, the New York Times just published this article: Are You a Good Driver? Here’s How to Find Out. A few quotes:
- "COULD a video game make you a better driver? More important, could computer software prevent teenagers from making fatal mistakes or even weed out older drivers whose debilities make them crash-prone?"
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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 »
That is the goal of Stanford University Media X: to foster deep collaborations between industry and academia, as highlighted in Business Week's recent article The Virtual Meeting Room. The 5th Annual Media X Conference on Research, Collaboration, Innovation and Productivity served its purpose well for the last couple of days: very fun and insightful presentations by Stanford researchers (and a few external experts) and a great list of participants to get to know.
No doubt, a great source of mental stimulation for all of us. Charles House, Media X's Executive Director, framed the dialogue as an effort to generate the right questions and then engage the best minds in answering them.
Some of (my) main take-aways
- "The world does not come to us as neat disciplinary problems, but as complex interdisciplinary challenges" (great quote by Dean John Hennessy)
- Personal Robotics is poised to explode soon-and software will be key (predicted by Paul Saffo)
- An inconvenient truth: Al Gore had to be convinced to bring his presentation into a movie, since he was very attached to each and every of his X hundred slides. We are happy it happened!
- Neuroscientists know what patterns in the brain indicate certain intentions-and are starting to use technologies to help immobilized patients communicate with external devices based merely on their thoughts
- We need to learn to embrace change- a lot of it is coming!
Now, some key points from several presentations (there were more than these, but I couldn't attend all). I encourage you to visit the website of each presenter if you are interested in learning more about that topic.
a. Paul Saffo on Innovation
- It usually takes 20 years since basic science until applications reach inflection point and take the world by storm
- Next big thing: personal robotics. Indicators: Continue Reading »
