As you age your brain slows down, your memory goes, and your attention lapses. Online brain fitness games like Lumosity sell the promise of stopping that decline. But as the chart below shows, it is all downhill after 30. (The chart is based on the brain performance index scores of 40,000 Lumosity users). Lumosity lets members play games designed to improve their memory, processing speed, and attention.
I’ve tried the games, and they are rather satisfying. One requires you to locate a bird that appears on the screen for a split second, while at the same time identifying a letter that flashes elsewhere on the screen. (It’s harder than it sounds). Others include a maze memory game and a symbol-matching one. Members pay $10 a month, with a free, 7-day trial.
The company is announcing today that Pequot Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, and earlier angel investors, including Michael Dearing, are putting $3 million into the startup. Pequot’s Amish Jani says:
We’ve been doing a ton in gaming, and have looked at a lot of casual games plays, but this is one of the few with a solid business model out of the gate, a unique value proposition, and has been growing very nicely.
As Boomers get older, he thinks they are going to do anything they can to stave off the inevitable. And if they can have fun trying, so much the better. Traffic to the site, while small at 330,000 unique visitors worldwide in April (comScore), is picking up. And if only ten percent of those visitors convert into paying members, that is still a tidy and growing business.
very nice, forwarding to my parents!
Lot of money.
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Unfortunately, I slowly encroach upon this cognitive function doom.
This is very useful information on Brain games. I am going to adopt this.
There’s endless money in education, however, what makes this site different? It’d be solid if they had a team of educators / psychologist backing their games, anyone know if they do?
they are really doing great i think. because take impression of very important web sites and news channels.
Fear is a powerful motivator .. specially to motivate other people to spend money on your products. Exercise, play chess, there are numerous FREE games online …. no need to pay some membership to play games.
now i played there bird watching and its really good game.
You’re not going to get 10% of 330,000 visitors to pay for those games. That would be an extremely overly-optimistic figure.
SharpBrains estimates a $225m market in 2007, for brain games
http://www.shar...ort-highlights/
“In this landmark, inaugural report, SharpBrains estimates the size of the US brain fitness software market at $225M in 2007, up from $100m in 2005 (50% CAGR). The 87-page report is the first to define the brain fitness software market and analyze the size and trends of its four customer segments: consumers, healthcare & insurance providers, K12 school systems, and fortune 1000 companies, military, and sports teams. According to SharpBrains, two segments fueled the market growth from 2005 to 2007: consumers (grew from $5m to $80m, 300% CAGR) and healthcare & insurance providers (grew from $36m to $65m, 35% CAGR).”
Try 3% conversion at best
Not bad.
There are free brain exercise games available at headstrongbrain.com that’s currently in free beta.
its called Nintendo DS.
the problem here is people think this is for old people, which it’s not. this supercharges healthy brains as well. It’s not akin – it mirrors the efforts one would make w/ their physical body.
the whole “just play chess” thing is fine – yeah, play chess, do whatever – but these refined games online are much like machines in the gym that excercise – more specifically – particular areas of your brain, such as working memory etc.
its actually very, very useful. Lumosity should be reading this and they need some help with their online pr / ‘buzz’. drop a note here and I can help you w/ that.
qsdsqdqds
Let’s ask the candidates for the Presidency to prove his capacities with these games, to seeing what happens :-p.
César Noragueda
this is very fun.. just like brain age for the DS.. great idea.
That chart is a hoax. Unless they measured the “decline” of cognitive power over the span over the 70 years, that chart means nothing. Maybe the older crowd just sucks at playing games, or maybe i’m in denial.
That chart is a hoax. Unless they measured the “decline” of cognitive power over the span over the 70 years for all subjects, that chart means nothing. Maybe the older crowd just sucks at playing games, or maybe i’m in denial.
sry for the double… eh triple post
As a physician and researcher as well as a boomer….there is no evidence that playing these games staves off memory loss..Alzheimers etc…so again, fear as a motivator and venture groups who are clueless about what boomers need. Memory is tied to smell…and since that is based on acetylcholine production…unless they can come up with a smell based online program…results will remain speculative at best.
I’m from from Lumos Labs and wanted to clarify a couple things:
The brain performance chart shows only the starting points for each age group. It does not show how people change with training (they improve), and it is not a longitudinal study (we’re comparing different cohorts at one time point). It shows that the older you are, the worse off you’re likely to be when you begin with Lumosity.
Jason, we work with researchers and doctors from Stanford and other universities to develop and then clinically validate the training programs. More info: http://www.lumo...science/results
It’s true that there is no conclusive evidence that games prevent Alzheimer’s, but as Jamie points out, that’s not the point! We primarily want to provide a fun way to develop cognitive ability and get smarter.
Michael:
Can you give us ONE scientific citation showing the efficacy of your cognitive intervention? I haven’t found any in PubMed.
Does your website really help users “develop cognitive ability and get smarter”? really? better than playing Tetris or other free brain boosters?
Nintendo doesn’t hide under pseudo-scientific credentials and claims…a game is a game is a game…until you have the scientific data.
Fun, no doubt. Will people pay $9/ month for teasers they could also get for free…good luck.
Mogilny, excellent point. I am sure if we had those same people learn how to play Wii Tennis, the results would be similar.
Hence, is Wii Tennis the ultimate brain trainer?
That graph is useless if not misleading.
Mike, follow the link from my first post. Several studies with methods are included there. These are also based closely on previously published research, and you can’t get any of this stuff free – except through our free trial.
The graph is based on observational data from the games played, and so, yes – part of the result is probably attributable to computer skills. Neither Lumos nor the author of this post present this as definitive; however, it does provide incremental evidence supporting the notion that these abilities begin to fade at an early age.
I have tried Lumosity but I find BrainReady.com to be much more compelling overall. BrainReady has free audio-based exercised episodes and podcasts that you can listen to while at the gym or driving, no need to sit at your computer, and no need to even see well, which is a big deal for older people.
They also have a great nutrition and foods blog with dietary advice that likely will have more real impact on one’s brain health than just doing visual exercises!
No affiliation to BrainReady, I just like it. Their web site is http://www.brainready.com
I actually have used the Lumosity product and really enjoy it. I love the fact that I can track my progress over time. Perhaps I’m just getting better at the games, but it’s fun and it makes me think more than if I just play solitare or other free games I’ve seen out there. As a 10 or 15 minute daily diversion, I feel like I’m not just wasting time and maybe it is good for me…it certainly can’t be bad!
Michael:
I have followed that link. All internal papers, nothing published. This is how vitamin supplements are sold. I am dissapointed you are coopting Science to sell Games.
Can you give me ONE direct published reference; controlled trial and results? It is really easy, just give me the reference, and I will read the study. If you have it.
Until then, I will keep sharpening my skills in Yahoo! Games…for free.
Pretty fun and relaxing, at least, at least I feel good when playing game. If you can feel good daily by paying $10 a month, why not? Just as many people will pay a few dozens dollars to gym walking on electronic walking machines that emits green house gas, while they have real roads to walk. Why? because they feel good when using a walking machine.
The only way to stimulate an aging brain is to stimulate it, and there are variety of way to do so, playing chess, watching horror movies, playing computer games, and playing this online “brain training” game.
At the end, I would have a suggestion to this Lumos Labs site:
In the bird catching game, my job is to catch the bird and spot a letter. As aging people is not very good at using mouse, the game should provide keyboard shortcut to pick up letter and move to next stage.
At the moment, after catching the bird, I have to use mouse to pickup letter, and press the Next button. This is about basic design of UI, unless the game is a mouse training game, or the researchers thoughts using mouse often is good for brain training.
the bird game is ok, the rest will keep me there for a minute. then what?
pretty boring I would say
Ronaldinho is the best, i have no doubt.
Bejeweled blitz: Def-Decorated with an all out attack or defeat.