Participation by panelist Joshua Steinerman, Einstein-Montefiore. Description: Interactive media in the form of software and videogames can be seen as a vehicle to harness neuroplasticity and benefit cognitive health across the lifespan. This field is still in its infancy, but emerging evidence suggests that specific populations may benefit from specific interventions. Three leading researchers, from Duke University, University of Rochester, and Albert Einstein-Montefiore, will discuss the opportunities and challenges they see to benefit younger and older minds in both healthy and clinical environments. Dr. D. Bavelier will review what is meant by neuroplasticity, how it is assessed, and what it implies for cognitive health. She will review the opportunities offered by using games as a medium to foster neuro-plasticity as well as the main challenges in developing games that fosters neuroplasticity. Dr. Joshua Steinerman will discuss practical and methodological issues in conducting technology trials in cognitive aging and related neuropsychiatric disorders. Examples from ongoing intervention studies will be presented. Dr. Doraiswamy will discuss the opportunities and obstacles for emerging technologies to be adopted by the healthcare community in the next few years.

1. Brain Fitness on Trial
Joshua R. Steinerman, M.D.
jsteinerman@progevity.com
Games For Health Conference
June 12, 2009

2. Overview
NEUROTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH: WHY? HOW?
• BRAIN AGING: MEASURES AND OUTCOMES
• BRAIN FITNESS INTERVENTIONS: CASE STUDIES

3. Why conduct brain fitness trials?
Knowledge Evidence Effectiveness
About the
Professionals Individuals
aging brain
About
cognitive Payors Public Health
technology

4. Diverse stakeholders,
Interdisciplinary methods
Healthcare Technology
Providers Developers
Physicians Games
Psychologists Other software
Brain Fitness
Professionals Devices
Users & Health
Consumers Organizations
Early adopters Insurers
Mainstream elders Service Providers
Clinical populations Regulatory

5. Research Design Considerations
Sample Measures Intervention
Cognitive
Healthy Objective Entertainment
Cognitive
Clinical Subjective Technology

6. Important practicalities
Subjects Setting Resources
Recruiting Lab/Clinic Staff
Compensation Community IT

7. Outcomes
• OBSERVING THE WORKING BRAIN
• MEASUREMENT STRATEGY
• ANALYTICAL APPROACH

8. Measuring Brain Function
Cognition
Behavior Mobility

9. Capturing cognition
Domain-specific Dynamics
Memory Neuroplasticity
Attention Learning
Language Peak Performance
Visuospatial Variability
Executive Function Development

10. Case Studies
• SPACE FORTRESS
• SENSECAM

11. Training Control Processes
Sample
N=60
Cognitively Healthy
Age 60-75
Measures
Traditional Neuropsych
Experimental Tasks
Subjective
In collaboration with Yaakov Stern, Daniel Gopher, et al (Columbia University)

12. Emphasis Change
Intervention
Space Fortress (EC)
Space Fortress (AC)
No-contact control
Training Schedule
12 trials/session
3 sessions/week
12 weeks

13. Lifelogging interactive media
Sample
N=12
Memory-impaired elders
Study Partners
Measures
Traditional Neuropsych
CogState
Structured interview
Subjective
In collaboration with Ronald Baecker, Sandra Black, et al (University of Toronto)

14. SenseCam experimental conditions
Intervention
Re-experience Re-mix
Raw footage replayed in Partner selects
temporal sequence (2 fps) representative images
First-person perspective “Authored”
No audio Narration
Custom Measures
“Remember” vs. “know”
Embedded visual recognition task

15. Thank you