Brain+, a brain-training programme that outpaces existing apps in engagement, effectiveness and economy for users, is being launched in a brand new version on the 1 July. Free to download, Brain+ is available to iPhone and iPad users through the Apple App Store.
Brain+ contains a number of scientifically designed, yet fun and motivating mind-training games that improve key mental capabilities in the areas of attention, memory, problem solving and planning. The Brain+ exercises are developed in collaboration with leading brain scientists from Copenhagen University and are suitable for people of all ages.
Launched in Denmark in 2013, Brain+ offers a uniquely differentiated and unmatched value proposition in the digital brain-training space by being the first to create and combine a solid scientific foundation with brain-training exercises delivered as games of higher quality and longer-term motivation compared with the simpler exercises in pricier apps already in market.
“Not many people are fully aware of all the possibilities for their brains, but it’s very important how you train your brain,” says Brain+ chief executive officer Kim Baden-Kristensen. “The capacity you build over the years prolongs your mental life and prevents ageing. We built Brain+ in the belief that people want to keep developing and challenging their mental capacity.”
“We believe that to achieve the right amount of brain-training intensity and duration, you need to be engaged and immersed,” he adds. “We achieve this by designing our exercises more like traditional mobile games and less like clinical exercises, whereas our competition utilise a more traditional exercise approach.”
Improve your mental abilities
Built on cutting-edge neuroscientific insights, methods and training principles that have been validated scientifically, the Brain+ platform’s exercises deliver effective training for improving and protecting the brain’s abilities, performance and health in children, young adults, older adults and people in need of rehabilitation and recovery from brain injury, disease and deficit recovery.
For children, Brain+ takes advantage of their strong drive to play, learn and build abilities toward the development of a high-performing brain. With young adults, Brain+ boosts their day-to-day abilities and mental health to increase quality of life and performance at school or on the job. For older adults, Brain+ increases abilities in core cognitive functions to maintain mental health and forestall age-related deterioration. And for people with brain injury, disease or in need of deficit recovery and maintenance, Brain+ prioritises cognitive abilities to assist in either returning to a normal life or stabilising or even improving a range of deficits.
According to a company release, Brain+ is designed to deliver better performance results than other entrants in the brain-training market, which lack strength in scientific foundation and effect, and are locked into sterile, non-motivating models of test exercises. Specifically, Baden-Kristensen says, earlier entrants in the space fail to motivate users over the long term by properly engaging and captivating them due to a lack of gamification best practices, which Brain+ employs in its games.
Because Brain+ develops exercises that closely resemble state-of-the art mobile games, the production value, art quality and design requirements are all high, thereby paving the way for unique training experiences, mimicking the entertainment provided by traditional mobile games while maintaining an emphasis on strengthening brain functions.
Baden-Kristensen said Brain+ has feedback from many users who say they can feel the app makes a demonstrable difference in their lives because it’s fun, engaging, less of a chore to give their brains a workout and drives a desire to share the challenge of their brain exercises with friends and family members.
Brain+ has invested heavily in the development of a science-based, machine-learning algorithm and technology that challenges the user dynamically and with high precision according to the skills of the individual.
Recommended by Benjamin Sadock
“The Brain+ project provides a unique and well-proven approach to improve brain function,” says Benjamin Sadock, the Menas S Gregory professor of Psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine. “The programme combines new scientific knowledge about how the brain works with the latest advances in gaming techniques to train the brain to operate at its maximum capacity.
“The use of characters, action, movement, music and immediate feedback allows brain fitness to occur in an environment that is both playful and entertaining. Brain+ will be of use to both healthy adults and those with memory problems who wish to improve their cognitive skills,” Sadock says. “This is an exciting programme that will continually motivate and stimulate the user to gain new skills and greater confidence in his or her intellectual life. I recommend it most highly.”
Brain+ has already demonstrated proof of concept by achieving rapid growth in parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.
