Lumosity

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Lumosity
Web address http://www.lumosity.com
Slogan Your brain, just brighter.
Type of site Public
Available language(s) English
Launched 2007
Current status Active

Lumosity is an online brain training and neuroscience research company based in San Francisco, California. Lumosity offers a brain training program consisting of more than 40 games in the areas of memory, attention, flexibility, speed of processing, and problem solving.[1] In mid-2013, the company had around 90 employees.[2]

History

Lumosity (also known as Lumos Labs) was founded in 2005 by Kunal Sarkar, Michael Scanlon and David Drescher.[3] Lumosity.com launched in 2007 and as of November 2013, has over 50 million members.[4] Lumosity’s mobile app has been downloaded more than 10 million times and "is often at the top of the Apple iTunes Store’s educational-gaming category."[5]

Financials

The company raised $400,000 in capital from angel investors in 2007,[6] a Series A of $3 million from Harrison Metal Capital, FirstMark Capital and Norwest Venture Partners in 2008,[7] a Series C of $32.5 million led by Menlo Ventures,[8] and a Series D of $31.5 million led by Discovery Communications with participation from existing investors.[9]

Effectiveness

There is no scientific consensus on the benefits of brain training for medical conditions in the clinical environment. Studies of Lumosity's effectiveness have shown mixed results.

Some have shown benefits from the use of Lumos Labs cognitive training:

  • Dr. Shelli Kesler and colleagues at Stanford University found improved cognitive performance and corresponding increases in brain activity in the pre-frontal cortex in survivors of childhood cancer following training with Lumosity. Participants who trained with Lumosity showed significantly improved processing speed, cognitive flexibility, verbal and visual declarative memory scores.[10]
  • Kesler et. al demonstrated enhanced math skills and cognitive performance with corresponding changes in brain activity in individuals with Turner syndrome following training with Lumosity.[11]
  • Kesler et. al found that women whose breast cancer had been treated with chemotherapy demonstrated improved executive function, such as cognitive flexibility, verbal fluency and processing speed after Lumosity training. This work is published in Clinical Breast Cancer. [12]
  • Psychologist Maurice Finn and Skye McDonald from the University of New South Wales found that patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who trained with Lumosity improved their sustained attention relative to controls. MCI is considered a precursor condition to Alzheimer’s disease, and this is the first report of cognitive enhancement with training in this population.[13]

But according to many experts, including eminent neuroscientists, "there is no scientific evidence to support a range of manufacturers' claims [including Lumosity's] that the gadgets can help improve memory or stave off the risk of illnesses such as dementia."[14] A careful attempt to replicate the preliminary experimental results[15] on which this enterprise is based found no effect from the training.[16] Some have also noted that the clinical trials cited on their website show that studies conducted used a very small sample size and that the methodology section fails to clearly explain how control groups were handled. Other studies have failed to demonstrate generalizable benefits of brain training.[17] A survey article "Brain Games are Bogus" was posted April 5, 2013, by Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Gareth Cook at the New Yorker.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "About Us". Lumosity. 
  2. ↑ Peterson, Jon (June 7, 2013). "Lumosity Expands in San Francisco with Lease at 140 New Montgomery". The Register: Bay Area Real Estate. 
  3. ↑ Roubein, Rachel (August 24, 2011). "Brain-Training Games Are New Exercise Craze". USA Today. 
  4. ↑ Sherr, Ian (November 5, 2013). "Small Brain-Training Game Maker Getting Bigger". Wall Street Journal. 
  5. ↑ Popescu, Adam (September 25, 2012). "Brain Training: Taking A Look At Lumosity". ReadWrite. 
  6. ↑ Kaplan, Dan (June 11, 2007). "Lumosity Raises $400,000 for Fames to Improve Brain". VentureBeat. 
  7. ↑ Glazowski, Paul (June 3, 2008). "Lumosity Nets $3m For Brain Gaming". Mashable. 
  8. ↑ Rao, Leena (June 16, 2011). "Lumosity Raises $32.5 Million For Brain Fitness Games". TechCrunch. 
  9. ↑ Rao, Leena (August 22, 2012). "Lumosity Raises $31.5M from Discovery Communications for Brain Fitness Games". TechCrunch. 
  10. ↑ Kesler, S.; Lacayo & Booil, J. (2011). "A Pilot Study of an Online Cognitive Rehabilitation Program for Executive Function Skills in Children with Cancer-Related Brain Injury". Brain Injury 25 (1): 101–112. doi:10.3109/02699052.2010.536194. PMC 3050575. PMID 21142826. 
  11. ↑ Kesler, S. R.; Sheau, K.; Koovakkattu, D. & Reiss, A. L. (August 2011). "Changes in Frontal–Parietal Activation and Math Skills Performance Following Adaptive Number Sense Training: Preliminary Results from a Pilot". Neuropsychology Rehabilitation 21 (4): 433–454. doi:10.1080/09602011.2011.578446. PMC 3152634. PMID 21714745. 
  12. ↑ Kesler, S.; Hadi Hosseini, S.M.; Heckler, C.; Janelsins, M.; Palesh, O.; Mustian, K. & Morrow, G. (August 2013). "Cognitive Training for Improving Executive Function in Chemotherapy-Treated Breast Cancer Survivors". Clinical Breast Cancer 13 (4): 299–306. doi:10.1016/j.clbc.2013.02.004. PMC: 3726272. 
  13. ↑ Finn, M. & McDonald, S. (December 2011). "Computerised Cognitive Training for Older Persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Pilot Study Using a Randomised Controlled Trial Design". Brain Impairment 12 (3): 187–199. doi:10.1375/brim.12.3.187. 
  14. ↑ Smithers, Rebbeca (February 26, 2009). "Brain Training? Think Again, Says Study". The Guardian. 
  15. ↑ Jaeggi, S. M.; Buschkuehl, M.; Jonides, J. & Perrig, W. J. (May 2008). "Improving Fluid Intelligence with Training on Working Memory". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105 (19): 6829–6833. doi:10.1073/pnas.0801268105. PMC 2383929. PMID 18443283. 
  16. ↑ See:
    • Nicholson, Christie (May 28, 2012). "Q&A: New Evidence Shows Brain-Training Games Don’t Work". Smart Planet. 
    • Redick, T. S.; Shipstead, Z.; Harrison, T. L.; Hicks, K. L.; Fried, D.; Hambrick, D. Z.; Kane, M. J. & Engle, R. W. (May 2013). "No Evidence of Intelligence Improvement After Working Memory Training: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study". Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 142: 359–379. doi:10.1037/a0029082. PMID 22708717. 
  17. ↑ See:
    • Owen, A.M.; Hampshire, A.; Grahn, J.A.; Stenton, R.; Dajani, S.; Burns, A.S.; Howard, R.J. & Ballard, G.C. (June 2010). "Putting Brain Training to the Test". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature09042. PMC 2884087. PMID 20407435. 
    • Dunning, D. L.; Holmes, J. & Gathercole, S. E. (November 2013). "Does Working Memory Training Lead to Generalized Improvements in Children with Low Working Memory? A Randomized Controlled Trial". Developmental Science. doi:10.1111/desc.12068. PMID 24093880. 
    • Chooi, W. T. & Thompson, L. A. (November–December 2012). "Working Memory Training Does Not Improve Intelligence in Healthy Young Adults". Intelligence 40: 531–542. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2012.07.004. 
    • Harrison, T. L.; Shipstead, Z.; Hicks, K. L.; Hambrick, D. Z.; Redick, T. S. & Engle, R. W. (December 2013). "Working Memory Training May Increase Working Memory Capacity but not Fluid Intelligence". Psychological Science. doi:10.1177/0956797613492984. PMID 24091548. 
    • Melby-Verlag, M. & Hulme, C. (February 2013). "Is Working Memory Training Effective? A Meta-Analytic Review". Developmental Psychology 49: 270–291. doi:10.1037/a0028228. PMID 22612437. 
    • Smith, S. P.; Stibric, M. & Smithson, D. (November 2013). "Exploring the Effectiveness of Commercial and Custom-Built Games for Cognitive Training". Computers in Human Behavior 29 (6): 2388–2393. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.05.014. 
  18. ↑ Cook, Gareth (April 5, 2013). "Brain Games Are Bogus". Elements. The New Yorker. 

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