Cognitive Games

PIs: Brian Winn, Jim Anthony

Winner of the Future Play 2005 Game Exhibition in the Future Game Impacts and Applications category.

The Cognitive Games proejct is a collaboration between game/media designers in Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media and content experts in Epidemiology, Psychology, and Neuroscience at Michigan State University. The goal is to create a subscription-based web site that provides a series of web-based computer games designed to exercise various cognitive functions (attention, memory, language, visual/spatial functions, executive functions) for individuals hoping to preserve neurocognitive functions as they move from middle to late adulthood. The initial target audience is post-WWII baby boomers (born approx. 1945-1960.)The games are designed around thematic domains of interest to the users and require approximately 5-10 minutes to play. The ultimate goal is to create 52 games, so they can be delivered on a weekly basis across an entire year. A coaching and assessment tool will track users performance across the games and make recommendations to the user, serving as a "personal cognitive trainer."

This is an evolving prototype of the MyBetterMind web site.

Research will be conducted on a subset of the subscribers to evaluate the service, using a longitudinal approach, to see if it aids in preserving cognitive functions over time.