For people who have trouble concentrating, help may be on the way through a new game app that helps improve the ability to focus just by playing. Researchers documented improvements in attention among healthy young adults who played a game called Decoder twice a week for a month, according to a report in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.
"For people who have had difficulty concentrating and problems getting into the flow at work or at university, Decoder should help them improve their concentration," said coauthor Barbara J. Sahakian, a professor and cognitive neuroscientist in the department of psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. "Our Decoder game is based on neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies and therefore it has an evidence base." While the researchers tested the new game app in healthy young people, they hope it may also aid people with conditions such as ADHD and traumatic brain injury (TBI).
"I am hoping to start studies using Decoder in people with brain injury and also in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in 2019," Sahakian said in an email. "Both groups have problems in attention and concentration." To see whether playing Decoder would improve a person's ability to concentrate, Sahakian and her colleagues recruited 75 healthy volunteers ages 18 to 30. At the study's outset, all participants underwent cognitive testing so the researchers would have baseline scores for comparison.
One third of the volunteers were assigned to play Decoder during eight one-hour sessions over a four week period. Another third played bingo during eight one-hour sessions, while the final group continued on with their lives with no intervention. At the end of the four weeks, the 75 volunteers were once again tested to see if their ability to concentrate had improved.