Notes

Train Your Brain With a New $225m Market Based on Latest Brain Health and Fitness Research
A spate of recent news coverage on brain fitness and "brain training" reflects an evergrowing fascination with natural, non-drug-based interventions to help keep our brains sharp as we age. This interest is quite timely, given the aging population, increasing Alzheimer's rates, and soaring healthcare costs that place more emphasis than ever on prevention and changing lifestyle.

This past Tuesday, the MIT Club of Northern California, the American Society on Aging, and SmartSilvers sponsored a meeting on The Emerging Brain Fitness Software Market: Building Better Brains to explore the realities and myths of this growing field. Before the panel, I had the opportunity to present an overview of the state of the Brain Fitness Software Market.

Why are we discussing this field at all? Well, for one, an increasing amount of companies are achieving significant commercial success in packaging "brain exercise". An example is the type of Nintendo games, such as for example Brain Age and Brain Training, which have shipped over 15 million units worldwide despite limited scientific support, since 2005. What is less visible is that a variety of companies and scientists are partnering to bring products to advertise with a far more solid clinical validation. We estimate the united states market was $225m in 2007 (growing from $100 in 2005). Whereas K12 Education used to be the major segment, adult consumers are responsible for most of that growth: we estimate the consumer segment grew from the few million in 2005 to $80 m in 2007.

Who is buying these products? Yes, needless to say, many adults over 50 who would like to protect their memory are among the pioneers. 78 million baby boomers are wanting to try new approaches. A growing number of retirement communities and nursing homes are offering programs with their residents to expand their usual fitness and social activities. And we can't forget about K12 education: certain brain fitness software programs have shown they can help kids who've dyslexia and related difficulties.

Will there be science behind these claims? Do the products work? It depends on how we define "work". If "working" means quantifiable short-term improvements after a amount of weeks of systematic "brain training" to boost specific cognitive skills, then your answer is that numerous programs do seem to work. If , however, "working" means measurable long-term benefits, such as better overall brain health once we age, or lower incidence of Alzheimer's symptoms, the answer is that circumstantial evidence suggests they may, but it is still too early to tell.

Are there any public policy implications? We certainly believe that t here are. THE GUTS for Disease Control recently partnered with the Alzheimer's Association to develop a thorough Cognitive Health road map to raised guide research efforts and improve public education on the approach to life habits that each proud owner of a brain could benefit from following. Given the high rates of traumatic brain injuries and stress disorders within a lot of the women and men coming home from the Iraq war, the military is investing heavily in research to greatly help identify problems to build up tools to solve them, and we expect that research will translate into wider health applications. No presidential candidate, to your knowledge, has directly addressed their priorities in the cognitive health realm but, given the growing importance and economic impact of brain-related disorders, we expect that to happen soon.

What are some trends that executives and investors should be looking at to understand this growing market? Let me make a few predictions:

1) An increased focus on Brain Maintenance, from retirement communities to gyms and health clubs. Will health clubs 1 day offer brain fitness programs, as well as perhaps "brain coaches"? We think so.

2) Better and much more widely available assessments of cognitive function will enable of all us to establish an objective baseline of how our minds are evolving, identify priorities for "workouts" and lifestyle interventions, and help us measure progress. Science-fiction? Not necessarily. there are already pretty good tests used in clinical and medical environments, the task is to refine and package those assessments in a consumer-friendly way.

3) We will have more and better computer-based tools, all of which may be more appropriate to focus on specific priorities. Just as we find various machines in health clubs today, later on we are able to expect different programs tailored to train specific cognitive skills.

4) More non-computer based tools will also provide much value. There's a lot more research on how meditation and cognitive therapy, to say 2 examples, can be quite effective in literally re-wiring parts of the brain.

5) Insurance Companies will introduce incentives for member who would like to follow brain fitness programs. Maybe even companies will offer you such programs to employees to attract and retain mature workers who would like access to the very best and the most recent innovations to help keep their minds sharp.

Now, Business Strategies in a Recession being a pretty new field, many questions remain open. For example, how will consumers and institutions receive quality information and education to navigate through the emerging research and the overwhelming number of new programs, separating reality from hype?

In conclusion, what were the primary take-aways from the function?

1. Research indicates that a number of cognitive abilities (attention, memory...) could be assessed and trained

2. An emerging market is beginning to develop-growing from around $100m in 2005 to $225m in 2007, in america alone-, and is poised to help keep growing at significant rates.

3. Many companies are currently selling products direct to consumers (and through institutions) with sometimes unclear claims - this threatens to confuse consumers and present a major obstacle to the growth and credibility of the sector.

If you are interested in this rapidly growing field, please keep tuned in! website can find fascinating research reports on a monthly basis.

Copyright (c) 2008 SharpBrains

Alvaro Fernandez is the Co-Founder of SharpBrains.com, that will release the report "The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008" on March 4th. SharpBrains has been recognized by Scientific American Mind and Newsweek as expert resource for Online Brain Training. Alvaro holds MA in Education and MBA from Stanford University, and teaches The Science of Brain Health at UC-Berkeley Lifelong Learning. It is possible to learn more at http://www.sharpbrains.com
Here's my website: https://atavi.com/share/w33397zgselu