British scientists develop new game to improve concentration

Researchers at the Institute of Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge have announced that they have successfully tested a new electronic game called "Decoder", designed to improve concentration.

The team of researchers sought to solve this problem through an electronic game available on smartphones. In a study published Tuesday in the Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience magazine, scientists wrote that the practice of the new game for eight hours in a month improves attention and concentration because it stimulates the frontal lobe of the brain.

For the study, they recruited 75 youths who were divided into three groups: one group played Decoder, another played bingo and the third group received no match.

Participants were then tested at the beginning of the month and at the end of the month with Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVP) to measure their attention and concentration. The results showed that adults who played Decoder showed an improvement in attention compared to those who played Bingo and the group that did not play any games. In fact, the gap of performance was significant and comparable to the effects of stimulants such as nicotine and Ritalin, used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

During the game, users found an incorrect order of numbers and were asked to click on the screen to detect a combination helping to promote the "flow", for example (2 – 4 – 6, 3 – 5 – 7, 4 – 6 – 8).

Decoder should help healthy people improve their ability to concentrate and avoid certain attention problems.Game is also beneficial for patients with attention deficit, including those with ADHD or head trauma "We are planning to start a study with traumatized brain patients this year," said lead author of the study, George Savulich, in a report published on the university's website.

"Many brain training applications on the market are not supported by rigorous scientific evidence, but our game was based on scientific studies and what characterizes it," he added.

The game is now licensed by Cambridge Enterprise, the technology transfer arm of the University of Cambridge, to Peak's application developer specializing in evidence-based brain training applications.

Peak has developed a version for Apple devices and released the application Tuesday as part of Peak Brain Training application. This app is available for free on the App Store and the company plans to make available a version for Android devices later this year.