Train Your Brain

Orange County, CA - November 4th 2016 - An increase of “brain-training” programs, designed to improve cognitive outcomes, has led the FDA to investigate the legitimacy of these programs. Big companies like Lumos Labs were advertising and promoting on networks including CNN, Fox News, the History Channel, National Public Radio, Pandora, and Spotify. All of which claimed their program Lumosity would sharpen performance in everyday life and protect against cognitive decline. When the science behind the program was called into question, Lumos Labs didn’t have clinically significant results and settled their Federal Trade Commission suit, paying out $2 million in redress. Now, the results of a new study from the Survivorship Research Group at the University of Sydney, Australia say that a few programs have a clinically significant impact. The research group tested the BrainHQ software from Posit Science on patients experiencing cognitive impairments post chemotherapy, a condition better recognized as “chemobrain.” Chemobrain has symptoms consisting of lapses in memory, concentration issues, untimely task completion and more, which can linger up to 10 years, effecting up to 70 percent of patients treated with chemotherapy. 242 people participated in the randomized controlled trial where half received normal care and the other half received care plus regular exercises from BrainHQ. Participants that took part in BrainHQ exercises were asked to complete 40 hours of training. The study used Posit Science’s Insight program, based on the neuroplasticity model. Its exercises target processing systems in the brain aimed at improving cognition through speed and accuracy of information processing. Hourly usage of the exercises varied, with the average being around 25 hours, however approximately 14% of patents in the BrainHQ group never participated, and the other 86% barely surpassed the 34 hour mark.