Thinking Clearly

We joined gyms and changed what we ate to save our hearts, and it worked for those of us who worked at it. Now we are looking for ways to keep our brains in top shape.

While exercising regularly and eating healthily is good for both the body and the mind, we are told we must also continually challenge our brains to keep them sharp as we age. This has created a $1-billion brain training market, which is offering a slew of computer-based and other products, often with no sound neuroscience behind them.

Building on 20 years of worldrenowned memory and aging science, conducted by its Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest has staked a claim in this burgeoning market with the launch of a forprofit company, Cogniciti, the first of its kind for a Canadian geriatric care and science facility.

The company will produce a suite of scientifically-validated products, games and training protocols that target memory and cognitive functions that matter most in our busy lives – planning, organizing, staying focused on a task, and not being distracted by irrelevant information that comes at us from all directions every day. The idea is to make the products engaging and fun so that consumers will not only benefit from them, but will enjoy using them.

Baycrest’s partner in this venture is MaRS, a Toronto-based innovation centre which helps science, technology and social enterprises build their companies.

Dr. William Reichman, president and CEO of Baycrest, notes that “creating a commercialized science enterprise was a natural step in the evolution of the Baycrest Centre for Brain Fitness.” The Centre launched last year with the support of a $10-million investment from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, matching an additional $10 million from private donors. “A big part of our mandate is to share our discoveries through the commercialization of our evidence-based cognitive interventions,” he says.

The emergence of a thriving brain fitness market is due in part to the Baby Boom phenomenon. People in this age group are becoming more at risk for dementia. The good news is that if the onset of Alzheimer’s disease can be delayed by five years, the prevalence will reduce by about 50 per cent. A 10- year delay of onset would essentially eradicate the disease. Lives and resources would benefit greatly.

That is a compelling reason why the Ontario government, employers, health-care providers and consumers themselves are all seeking effective tools to extend memory and cognitive abilities far into the aging process.

Dr. Reichman, a world-renowned expert on geriatric mental health and dementia, would prefer to focus on brain fitness as opposed to brain failure. He says that paying attention to our brain health while young, just as we do with our bodies, is the best approach. Waiting until old age to do something about mental decline is like closing the barn door after the horse has left.

“There is growing scientific evidence that keeping the brain active throughout the lifespan can delay the onset of dementia. Think of it as wanting to plant and grow more trees in a forest. Through learning and keeping our brains stimulated we can continue to put more branches on the trees and more leaves on those branches. The thicker the forest, the more efficiently our brain is functioning.” Even older brains retain the capacity for neurogenesis (the growth of new brain cells), and brain regions damaged by injuries such as a stroke can form new compensatory connections through a process known as neuroplasticity.

Test-marketing will begin next year for Cogniciti’s first product, Memory@Work™. The corporate training program will show employees, managers and team leaders how to use memory strategies to improve personal performance in the workplace.

Other products in the pipeline for test-marketing in 2011 and 2012 include brain exercise games for mobile devices and the Web.

“Converting Baycrest’s outstanding cognitive science research into products and services for the important and rapidly growing brain fitness market represents a very promising opportunity,” says Dr. Ilse Treurnicht, the CEO of MaRS. “Leading scientists at Baycrest have been working with MaRS for the past three years to assemble and shape the research assets and develop the commer-cialization plan for Cogniciti. We are now well positioned to put this superb science to work on a critical societal challenge, for the benefit of Canadians and others around the world.”