Game helps people with mental illness ... raise awareness

Imagine you come out from the doctor's office with a prescription designated to play a video game.The inventors of Brain Plasticity with the awareness game, have started negotiations with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enter the gaming market as a treatment drug.

Brain Plasticity has tweaked the game to help people with schizophrenia improve attention deficit and memory related disorders.

Early next year, they will conduct a study with 150 participants at 15 locations across the country. Participants will play the game for one hour, five times a week for six months. If participants' quality of life is improved at the above "dose", Brain Plasticity will receive FDA approval.

FDA approves computer games in general that can change the medical approach to help people whether it is schizophrenia or more common disorders like depression or anxiety, Daniel Dardani, transfer member technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said.

But FDA involvement in the intellectual gaming industry will come with both advantages and disadvantages. The parallel analysis list of these factors is drawn from specialized research and debate on this issue at an Entertainment and Neurotherapeutics software meeting in San Francisco earlier this week.

Can games help improve intelligence?

Some hope that FDA approval will add integrity to an ever-controversial industry."The world of intellectual games is just bullshit," said Michael Merzenich, a cognitive game developer, co-founder of Posit Science on New Scientist at the meeting.

He pointed out that a study last year showed that awareness-raising games have no effect on the brain (Nature, DOI: 10.1038 / nature09042). FDA participation will work only to demonstrate the benefits of these games.

However, determining the benefits of these games is a complex process. Since the Nature study was published, critics have asked 11,430 participants to be self-selected, healthy and not follow a fixed "dose." They argue that games need to be checked. Look more closely.

Unlike the cognitive requirements of the Nature study, Brain Plasticity's games have specific objectives and are accompanied by a stringent "dose" that is required to be regular and long-term to bring about result.

Even when the FDA approved for Brain Plasticity's games, they did not seem to thoroughly study the claims of the games for the stability of healthy human brains, Henry Mahncke, a senior scientist at Brain Plasticity said.

Some people are concerned that the FDA's approval will actually hinder the development of awareness-raising games, because the agency is too slow to approve the game to allow development."I think it's too early for FDA to participate," stressed Alice Medalia, a cognitive recovery specialist at Columbia University in New York City.

When compromise takes place. FDA can instruct consumers on what to look for in the game - similar to handling medical smartphone applications, said Alvaro Fernandez, CEO of SharpBrains, a market research firm of Washington DC - monitoring non-influential neuroscience tools.