State of the brain fitness software revolution

Brain fitness. Clearly a hot buzz phrase the past few years. What does it mean? What is happening? Where is it headed? Should I purchase some of the advertised software/technology to keep my mind fresh and protected from the influence of aging? Curious minds want to know...and Sharp Brains has provided the most comprehensive synthesis of the brain fitness software field to date.

As mentioned previously, Sharp Brains recently published "State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008." Before proceeding I need to mention that, IMHO, the Sharp Brains organization is the leading critical voice in the field of brain fitness. I've often called them the Ralph Nader of brain fitness. Thus, I believe their first "state of the market" report should receive serious attention by anyone interested in this emerging field. It is my understanding that a similar hardware report is in development. I can't wait!

It is not possible to summarize the information packed 87-paged report in a blog post, so I'll only provide a few tidbits.

First, as stated at the Sharp Brain web page:

• The report tracks developments at over 20 public and private companies offering tools to assess and train brain functions and provides important industry data, insights and analysis to help investors, executives, entrepreneurs, and policy makers navigate the opportunities and risks of this rapidly growing market. The report discusses the implications of cognitive science on healthy aging and a number of disorders such as attention deficits, dyslexia, stroke and traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia, autism, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease. The report also provides information and frameworks to help institutional buyers make informed purchase decisions about brain fitness programs.

A few (select) highlights:

• Revenues for the US brain fitness software market was estimated to reach $225 million in revenues in 2007...reflecting a large increase from $100 million in 2005. Clearly the brain fitness movement has reached and passed the tipping point.
• Considerable confusion exists in the market. Many products and claims proliferate, but, according to Sharp Brains, only five programs have demonstrated positive cognitive effects in tightly controlled research studies (e.g., studies that use randomized controlled trials). Readers are encouraged to visit the Sharp Brains web page and blog for objective evaluations of new and emerging brain fitness product claims.
  
• The consumer brain fitness market showed significant gains from 2005 to 2007 (from a few million in 2005 to $80 million). Consumers should expect an increasing array of products directly targeted at the end-user consumer. Expect a number of new software and technology start up companies to join the bandwagon this year.
  
• Nintendo's Brain Age and training games are credited as being one of the major forces in the increased interest in brain fitness.
• There are four primary customer segments: consumers, healthcare & insurance providers, K12 school systems, and fortune 1000 companies, military,and sports teams.
• Does any of this glitzy stuff work? It depends. As is the case with most cognitive or educational interventions, short-term (proximal) improvement (measured in weeks) is often demonstrated. However, the evidence for long-term (distal) improvement and maintenance is minimal to none, and consists largely of circumstantial evidence. Long-term improvement due to cognitive-based interventions has been one of the more elusive searches for the holy grail in the area of intelligence.
  

I could go on, and on, and on. If you are interested in capturing an accurate picture of the state of the brain software research and market there is only one option...purchase their report. The report is organized into seven chapters:

• Why now? Market Overview
• The Science of Brain Fitness: Neuroplasticity, Neurogenisis and the Cognitive Reserve
• Consumers--Taking Charge of Their Brain Health
• Healthcare and Insurance Providers--Focus on Preventive Health
• K12 School Systems--Responding to Learning Disabilities in New Ways
• Fortune 1000 Companies, Military and Sports Teams--Improving Productivity
• Future Directions: Market trends 2007-20015.

Other brain-related blogs have commented on this report. For example, check out the Brain Injury News and Information Blog.

Finally, given that I'm an educational psychologist who has consulted on a research project (using randomized control and treatment groups) that demonstrated short-term (proximal) positive academic effects for the Interactive Metronome technology (click here for more information and here for conflict of interest disclosure), I was most interested in the conclusion that the K-12 educational market "remains largely untapped due to limited research linking cognitive training to academic performance." I hope this changes. I predict that there will be increased interest in the application of brain fitness software and hardware in the K-12 school-age market, most likely driven first by parents purchasing products in hopes of improving the educational performance of their children.


Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, neurotechnology, brain fitness, Sharp Brains, software, intelligence, IQ, Interactive Metronome

Brain Blog Carnival Encephalon #41

Thanks to Mind Hacks for the FYI re: the 41st edition of the brain blog carnival Encephalon.

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, Encephalon, brain carnival, blog carnival

More on speech and the IQ brain clock

Yet another research article [Peter & Stoel-Gammon (2008). Central timing deficits in subtypes of primary speech disorders. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, March 2008; 22(3): 171–198] indicating the importance of mental timing and speech (click here for prior related posts), in this case CAS (childhood apraxia of speech). According to the journal authors, this subtype of speech disorder is somewhat controversial in clinical practice. It is defined as "a motor speech disorder that specifically interferes with motor planning and/or programming, resulting in moderate to severe deficits in speech intelligibility."

The authors conclude that "this study is consistent with the presence of a central timing deficit in children with speechdisorders, expressed across modalities (oral, hand) and across types of timing measures (greater rhythmic structure, small-scale durational accuracy), affecting children with fewer
apraxic characteristics to a lesser extent."

Caveat....this is small sample size study (11 clinical subjects and 11 matched controls) that needs replication in additional samples.


Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, education, neuropsychology, neuroscience, speech, language, apraxia, mental timing, brain clock, IQ Brain Clock, temporal processing

Brain fitness is hot industry

Thanks to Sharp Brains (again) for pointing this blog to a Reuters news article on the continuated expansion/explosion of the brain fitness industry. According to Alvarado over at SB, this is one of the better news articles on the brain fitness industry.


Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, neurotechnology, brain fitness, Sharp Brains, IQ Brain Clock

Brain Blogging # 29 brain carnival

The 29th edition of the Brain Blogging brain carnival is now up. Thanks GNIF.


Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, Brain Blogging, GNIF

Out of Sync and Synchronized Brains

Interesting FYI post at the Eide Neurolearning Blog re: the "Out of Sync Brain." Readers of the IQ Brain Clock will notice a similarity to my hypotheses re: the importance of mental/interval timing in synchronizing various parts/networks of the brain for effective cognitive performance (check out my IQ Keynote address PPT show from this past year)


Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, brain, synchrony, mental timing, interval timing, brain clock, IQ Brain Clock, mental time-keeping

Highlights of Sharp Brains brain fitness software report

More on the Sharp Brains first report on the status of the brain fitness software market...a list of highlights over at the Brain Injury News and Information Blog.


Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, aging, neuropsychology, neuroscience, brain fitness, neurotechnology, Sharp Brains

Music helps with stroke recovery

Interesting post at the BPS Research Digest re: study suggesting that listening to music may help people recover better from strokes.


Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, nueropsychology, neuroscience, brain injury, stroke, rehabilitation, music therapy

State of the Brain Fitness Software Market - Sharp Brains 2008 report.

As I've mentioned previously, and also at IQ's Corner (click here), the Raph Nader of the emerging field of brain fitness software is Sharp Brains. I love their blog so much that I provide a feed of all their topic posts on the right-hand side of my IQ Brain Clock blog.

Sharp Brains just released their first "State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008" report. I would love to read it, but @ $495 the price is too step for me.

Kudos to the folks at Sharp Brains.


Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, neurotechnology, brain fitness, Sharp Brains

Time to think. When to think. Our 24 hour clock

[Double click on image to enlarge]

When do you think the best...and why? I started skimming the article below and quickly realized that it was more than I wanted to know about the circadian pacemaker. Maybe I was trying to read it at a time when my cognitive processes where not functioning at their optimal level (due to my circadian clock).

As noted in prior posts, research has suggested that human beings have multiple timing systems that are active over more than 10 orders of magnitude. At the top is the 24 hour circadian pacemaker/oscillator system, a level far removed from the focus of IQ's Brain Clock on interval and milisecond timing systems. However, the title of this article grabbed my attention...which quickly wanned....zzzzzzzzzzzzz....I need a nap (this is not a reflection on the scholarly merits of the article...just my capacity to sustain interest, arousal, motivation, etc. to read the digest it.)

However, I did find a very nice conceptual figure (and I love conceptual model figures) the authors used to organize their literature review re: cognitive functions impacted by our circadian rhythms. The figure is above (double click to enlarge).

I decided to make this article available to readers in hopes that someone may take the time to read it and summarize it in layman's terms. If anyone would like to make a guest post re: this article, let me know via the "comment" feature. Maybe my fellow blogger at "A blog around the clock" might eventually post something regarding this article (if he has not already).

• Schmidt, C. & Collette, F. (2007). A time to think: Circadian rhythms in human cognition. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 2007, 24(7),755–789 (click here)

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, circadian, brain clock, interval timing, sleep, cognitive performance

Brain fintess: Posit Science Brain Fitness Impact study video

I just ran across a video on You Tube reporting on the Posit Science Brain Fitness Impact study with adults 65+ years of age. Check it out. The brain fitness movement continues to accelerate.



Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, brain fitness, aging, Posit Science, IMPACT study, neurotechnology

Brain Blogging Blog Carnival # 28

The 28th edition of the Brain Blogging Carnival is now available via the GNIF blog.

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, neurotechnology, brain, brain blogging, brain carnival, mind blogosphere

Encephalon #40 blog carnival

Encephalon # 40 blog carnival is now available.


Technorati Tags: psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, Encephalon, blog carnival, neurotechnology

Research Byte: Wearden's "slowing down the brain clock" article published

A previous post listed an "in press" article (by Wearden) on slowing down the brain clock. The article is now officially published (click here to view)

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuroscience, neuropsychology, brain clock, temporal processing, IQ brain clock

Executive function primer

In my posts and presentations, I've hypothesized that executive functions, which are generally believed to be seated in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, play a pivotal role in mental/interval temporal processing (the brain clock). If you want to read a decent primer on EF and the prefrontal cortext, check out Deric Bownd's Mindblog.

Thanks to Mind Hacks for the tip...and leading me to discovering this new blog...which I will add to my blog roll.




Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, school psychology, IQ brain clock, mental timing, interval timing, executive function, prefrontal cortex

Alan Burdick on the human brain clock: The mind in overdrive

As I continue to traverse the various disciplines studying various aspects of temporal processing or mental timing, I often get confused and drown in the conceptual, empirical and theoretical depth of the empirical articles from such a diverse array of disciplines. Trying to put together an understandable explanation of the human brain clock is difficult....I often doubt my abilities to distill this information. I often wonder if my brain clock speed is insufficient to understand this complex and rich array of diverse research.

I find hope when I run across professional writers who have attempted to understand and explain these phenomena to the general public. Hope was renewed the other day when I ran across a brief article (The mind in overdrive: Can we increase productivity by revving up the neural pacemakers in the brain?) in Discover magazine by the well-known NY free-lance author, Alan Burdick, where he attempted to tackle the difficult issue of understanding the human brain clock. Kudos to Burdick for working on bringing this knowledge to the awareness of the general public. I hope that Burdick continues to work on translating the complex literature of mental timing for general consumption. I wish I had such skills and could write similar articles, book chapters, or books about this important topic.

His 2006 Discover publication can be found by clicking here. I'm going to add a link to his web page to the IQ Brain Clock blog roll.


Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuroscience, neuropsychology, mental timing, brain clock, temporal processing, Discover Magazine, Alan Burdick

Random tidbits from the mind blogosphere 2-20-08

Check out the following from the mind blogosphere

• Music, Your Brain and Attention at the Eide Neurolearning blog
• Being married to my lovely auburn-head wife (a natural red-head), I find the continued speculation on the possible extinction of red-headed humans of interest. Thanks to Brain Blogger for the post.
  
• Thanks to Mind Hack for the post regarding five interesting auditory illusions.
• Check out an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education dealing with research on SES and brain development. Thanks to Neuroethics and Law Blog for the tip.

Technorati Tags: psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, music, attention, red-heads, Ga, auditory processing, SES

Brain fitness overview: US News and Word Report

I just learned that the most recent issue of U.S. News and World Report is devoted to brain fitness. It is an excellent overview of the status of what we know and don't know. Information can be found by clicking here.

Technorati Tags: brain fitness, intelligence, IQ, aging, developmental, psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, neurotechnology

Powered by ScribeFire.

On the road again - brief blogging break

My posting has been slowing down the past few weeks as I've been busy preparing for the NASP convention in New Orleans this week. Blog posts will likely be zero for the next week. I shall return.

Brain fitness merger info - preventing car crashes

Check out Posit Science press release regarding its acquisition of Visual Awareness, Inc., the company that developed the UFOV assessment and cognitive speed of processing programs.

The brain fitness movement is here and growing.


Technorati Tags: psychology, neuropsychology, neurotechnology, brain fitness, Posit Science, UFOV, processing speed, Gs

Powered by ScribeFire.

Misc - martial arts program for children with epilepsy

I found the post (at the GNIF Brain Blogger) re: the positive effects of a martial arts intervention program for children with Epilepsy very interesting.


Technorati Tags: psychology, intervention, marital arts, Beyond IQ, self-concept, self-efficacy, motivation, epilepsy, psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, special education

Powered by ScribeFire.

"Tools of the mind" executive function training

A very interesting post at the Developing Intelligence blog re: research reports that the "Tools of the Mind" cognitive intervention can produce significant gains in executive function in children.

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, education, neuropsychology, neuroscience, executive function, Gf, fluid intelligence, Vgostsky, cognition, intelligence

Powered by ScribeFire.

Brain injury - perseveration

An example of brain injury related perseveration....not really a laughing matter. Check out the Brain Injury blog for up-to-date information related to BI. It is an excellent blog

Impulsivity and time perception

An interesting "in press" article (Trends in Cognitive Sciences; Willmann & Paulus) that links the pacemaker accumulator model (PAM) of mental time-keeping and impulsivity and decision making.

The bottom line is that individuals that focus more attentional resources on time ("watching the clock") and/or who may be in increased arousal states (due to emotional distress), experience time differently. Such individuals overestimate time durations, and thus have a harder time waiting for rewards or delaying gratification needs. According to the author's modification of the predominant PAM model (see addition of "mood states" oval in figure above), the pacemaker of impulsive individuals may run at a higher clock speed, due to increased arousal or attention.

Interesting hypothesis and expansion of the PAM.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, pacemaker accumulator, IQ Brain Clock, brain clock, time perception, temporal processing, impulsivity, ADHD

Tech tidbit - 2007 and software (MIT Tech Review)

Interesting post from the MIT Tech Review regarding their perception of significant developments in software during the past year (2007)

Technorati Tags: technology, internet, software, web, psychology

Powered by ScribeFire.

BPR3 - Blogging about Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting

I just stumbled across BPR3 (Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting). GREAT idea. As readers of my blog know, the majority of my posts deal with comments about published journal articles.

Count me in. I'm going to try to get into the habit of using the BPR3 icon in such posts...hopefully their system will do what it says it will.

Kudos to the BPR3 concept.

Mental timing and dyslexia - another study

Another article (Jamkowski & Rusiak, 2008; Psychological Research journal) investigating the role of temporal processing in reading and reading disabilities (click here for prior related posts). The literature review (intro) is worth a read just to get a quick overview of the potential role of temporal processing in a number of clinical disorders and human cognitive functioning.



Abstract (italics added by the Time Doc blog dictator)

• Hari et al. (Brain 174:1373–1380, 2001) demonstrated that dyslexics showed a sluggish attention capture in both visual hemiWelds. Additionally, they indicated a left–right asymmetry in the perception of temporal order of two visual stimuli (they performed worse than controls only if the stimulus in the left hemiWeld preceded that in right hemiWeld). They suggested that a left-sided minineglect is associated with dyslexia. We hypothesized that if a kind of neglect syndrome is responsible for the asymmetry they found, dyslexics should not only show a left–right asymmetry in temporal order judgment of two laterally presented stimuli but also perform equally well as controls when the stimuli are vertically aligned. Our results indicated that in both tasks dyslexics performed generally worse than normal readers. The results suggest that dyslexics suffer from a more general problem of order discrimination.

Technorati Tags: psychology, education, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, temporal processing, brain clock, reading, dyslexia, learning disabiilities, reading disability, intelligence, IQ, brain clock, mental time keeping

Powered by ScribeFire.

IQ's Corner random tidbits from mind blogosphere 12-21-07

Check out my semi-consistent "random tidbits from the mind blogosphere" over at my sister blog...IQ's Corner.

The important brain clock strikes again: RAS training and Parkinsons

I recently made a post about the impact or RAS (Rhtymic Auditory Stimulaltion) on improved gait (check out this link for a great animation of walking gait) performance in patients with CP. Someone just sent me a link to a boat-load of similar article abstracts, most dealing with the positive benefits of RAS with individuals with Parkinson's disease. The references and abstracts can be found by clicking here.

As I've blogged before, there is a considerable body of evidence linking temporal processing (mediated by the internal brain clock) and Parkinson's disease. RAS is clearly dealing with underlying temporal processing/brain clock mechanisms.

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, rehabilitation, neuropsychology, neuroscience, RAS, rhythmicity, rhythm, gait, Parkinsons, brain clock, mental time keeping, temporal processing

Powered by ScribeFire.

Improved brain clock improves student performance: Media coverage

Today's edition of the Daytona Beach News-Journal includes an interesting report on a private schools use of a synchronized metronome tapping (SMT) intervention (viz., Interactive Metronome) with elementary school-age children. The article speaks for itself, with the staff reporting positive improvement in behavior and academics for students using the IM method.

As you will notice, myself, and my friend/colleague (Dr. Gordon Taub) were interviewed for the article. We were interviewed as the reporter read our recent journal publication in Psychology in the Schools, an article that reported positive reading improvement after the IM intervention.

This is one of my handful of experiences in being interviewed by a reporter. After spending at least one hour on the phone with the reporter, and sharing all kinds of information, it is interesting to see what comments I (we) made the survived the final cut. I'm pleased that the information attributed to Dr. Taub and I was accurate.

Be sure to watch the video that accompanies the article...it will give you a good feel for the basics of the IM (SMT-based) intervention.

As I've reported before, my involvement in the IM study with Dr. Taub was the impetus for my recent interest in temporal processing, mental/interval time-keeping, and the concept of an internal brain clock. It is why I started the IQ Brain Clock blog.

[See conflict of interest disclosure statement re: my role as a Scientific Advisor to IM]

Just in case this on-line article is ever pulled from the net, I've made a pdf copy available for viewing.


Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, neurotechnology, brain clock, Interactive Metronome, mental time keeping, temporal processing

Powered by ScribeFire.