Lumosity awards $150,000 Human Cognition Grant to UNC at Chapel Hill researchers

Lumosity, a leading cognitive training and neuroscience research company, today awarded the first Human Cognition Grant, a research grant of $150,000 dedicated to advancing the understanding of neural bases of cognitive training, to Joseph Hopfinger Ph.D., Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Kathleen Gates, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Quantitative Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The grant will support research that investigates changes in brain connectivity from cognitive training through group and individual fMRI analyses.

"With recent advances in functional neuroimaging analysis methods, this is an exciting time to investigate changes in neural connectivity that may be associated with cognitive training," notes Professor Hopfinger. "In particular, Dr. Gates' new methods will allow us to examine changes at the individual and sub-group levels, as we seek to reveal whether the effects of cognitive training transfer to changes in task-independent brain networks."

The goal of the study is to identify functional changes in the healthy adult brain that result from cognitive training and that relate to improved cognitive performance. Researchers will compare connectivity changes between an experimental Lumosity training group and an active control group who will play online games not intended as cognitive training, for equivalent amounts of time. All participants will complete a battery of cognitive assessments and will participate in fMRI sessions, before and after training.

"We are excited to fund and support innovative research opportunities that will contribute to a deeper understanding of both behavioral and brain-based changes related to cognitive training," said Joe Hardy, Ph.D, VP of Research & Development at Lumosity. "We are committed to advancing neuroscience research that will lead to new discoveries, applications and technologies."

Using state-of-the-art fMRI analyses, the research will measure resting-state connectivity networks in the brain and task-evoked neural activity, before and after training. In addition, possible correlations between changes in brain measures and changes in performance on standard cognitive assessments will be investigated.

The Human Cognition Grant is an extension of Lumosity's research platform, the Human Cognition Project (HCP), which brings together researchers from around the world in an effort to better understand the workings of the human mind and brain. Current research projects on Lumosity include topics such as decision-making, multitasking, nutrition, TBI, cancer/chemofog, schizophrenia, stroke, MCI, emotion regulation, aging, ADHD, and PTSD.

Provided by Lumosity