Over the last six years Adam Gazzaley's research has undergone a transformation. He's moved from studying how the brain works, to studying the brain as it ages, then into the domain of applying methodology he's developed to improve the brain's functions.
At WIRED Health 2015 he'll outline his vision of the future, one where "we're thinking about software and hardware as medicine".
In particular, Gazzaley plans to talk to the WIRED Health audience about video games "that are custom-designed to challenge the brain in a very particular way".
Gazzaley's team at University of California, San Francisco previously demonstrated that a custom-designed video game can be highly effective in treating a specific cognitive deficit. They developed *<a style="background-color: transparent;" href="http://www.nature.com/news/gaming-improves-multitasking-skills-1.13674">
NeuroRacer</a>*, a driving game aimed at improving multi-tasking skills in older people.
The success of NeuroRacer propelled Gazzaley into new partnerships, giving him access to resources that further advance his games development program into areas like motion capture and virtual reality. He's excited about coupling his games with mobile devices that will allow them to function outside the lab.
Gazzaley will talk about four new games he's working on, in particular a meditation-inspired one. Meditrain is the product of his collaboration with Buddhist author and teacher Jack Kornfield. Developed for the iPad, he hopes to demonstrate part of it at WIRED Health.
The avid gamer also plans to talk about his research on using real-time brain recordings in game play, to elevate games' appearance and make them more effective as a therapeutic tool.
He's very excited about video games gaining a foothold in the educational world. "It's [a goal] that we talk about pretty much every week," he says. "How the tools we develop might have an impact not just on a brain that has deficits ... but on a brain that's healthy -- that's either developing healthily or an older brain that's healthy and doesn't have pathology or distinct deficits."
Can using technology boost how the brain processes information?
Will it help students engage more deeply in their studies?
Introducing the tools into the classroom as an adjunct to existing educational tools is something Gazzaley's team is already exploring. Discussions are ongoing with schools in San Francisco and the Bay area and he hopes to get pilot work underway this summer.
Gazzaley is passionate about making the technology he's working on accessible enough to level the playing field for the disadvantaged. He sees it as a way of penetrating those places that are harder to reach, both in under-served areas of the US and in developing countries.
Does Gazzaley think that events like WIRED Health are increasingly important for getting the word out about new research and products? "It's critical that scientists take their work out to the public to try to make it understandable," he says. "I learn a tremendous amount from the audience and my fellow speakers. And that has really transformed my perspective over the years. The entire view that we have and our interest in education, much of that was born out of interacting with people on platforms like this."
Is he looking to make some new partnerships at WIRED Health? "I'd love to interact more with startups there. I think that would be exciting." "What I hope and predict," he says, "is that there'll be more of an embrace from the tech world in purposing devices not just for entertainment and media, but also as health and education tools.
Once the multi-purpose development approach is shown to be effective in expanding rather than [reducing] a company's bottom line, [I predict] that we'll see more of that."
WIRED Health 2015 takes place on 24 April at 30 Euston Square, home to the Royal College of General Practitioners. WIRED subscribers can get a 15 percent discount (non-subscribers save 10 percent) by booking tickets before February 28.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
