8/10/2015 – Will Doctors Soon Be Prescribing Video Games For Mental Health?

The market for “brain fitness” games is worth about $1 billion and is expected to grow to $6 billion in the next five years. Game makers appeal to both the young and the older with the common claim that if you exercise your memory, you’ll be able to think faster and be less forgetful.

The brain training industry recently received criticism from 75 scientists from around the world who signed a letter criticizing companies for exaggerating claims and preying on the anxieties of elderly customers trying to stave off memory decline.

In his lab at the University of California, San Francisco, neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley — a signatory of the letter  is working on something much more complicated than a brain exercise. It’s a fully immersive video game focused on multitasking. Gazzaley thinks this kind of challenge will have a positive effect on executive brain function.

Read the full article at National Public Radio (NPR).