A team of researchers at Cambridge University has developed a brain training App to help improve concentration against daily distractions that people feel in a connected world. The team demonstrated a game called ‘Decoder’ on an I-Pad for eight hours and improved concentration. This form of attention activates a frontal-parietal network in the brain, said the researchers from the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cambridge.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers divided 75 healthy young adults into three groups: one group received “Decoder”, one control group played Bingo for the same amount of time and a second control group received no game. All 75 participants were tested at the start of the trial and then after four weeks.
The results showed that those who played “Decoder” were better than those who played Bingo and those who played no game. To ensure that “Decoder” improved focused attention and concentration without impairing the ability to shift attention, the researchers also tested participants’ ability on the “Trail Making Test”.”Decoder” performance also improved on this commonly used neuropsychological test of attentional shifting. In addition to healthy people, the game will be beneficial for patients who have impairments in attention, including those with ADHD or traumatic brain injury. We plan to start a study with traumatic brain injury patients this year,”
The game has now been licensed to app developer Peak.
