A recent study published in the journal Psychological Science demonstrated that daily brain training can help strengthen willpower and promote healthy lifestyle choices in myriad ways. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam studied a group of problem drinkers who had trouble controlling their automatic impulse to drink alcohol. Researchers hypothesized that boosting cognitive functions such as working memory, which is important for maintaining and manipulating information about future goals, could indirectly help alcoholics control their impulses and drink less.

To test this theory, researchers split participants into two groups. The training group completed 25 daily sessions of a challenging working memory training regimen that involved exercises similar to Lumosity games such as Memory Matrix and Monster Garden. Participants in the control group also completed daily working memory tasks, but they only played the easiest level of each task. The results showed that the training group improved their memory capacity and also drank less alcohol than those in the control group. Moreover, the improvements were enduring: one month later, training participants who had played challenging games still had lower drinking rates than the control group.

This study shows that challenging cognitive training can help people control their impulses and make healthier choices. With further research, it may be possible to determine whether similar training can lead to improvements in other domains of life that require willpower and self-control. New studies, for example, might investigate whether brain training can help people stick to their diets or save more money for retirement.

This exciting new evidence suggests that completing daily brain training exercises like those on Lumosity may contribute to surprising lifestyle benefits beyond improving your brain—they might help you make overall smarter choices that keep the rest of your body healthy as well.

Some investigators looked at how commercially available games—think Tetris or Unreal Tournament—impacted cognitive functions such as tone discrimination or binocular vision in patients with amblyopia. Other researchers used cognitive training to target face processing or auditory skills. But another study came out of that same meeting with a subject that might surprise you, and it made use of the cognitive training on Lumosity: Dr. Anett Gyurak of Stanford University presented fascinating new research that used Lumosity training to target the skills necessary for emotional well-being.

Dr. Gyurak’s presentation included two studies: one with healthy adults that underwent Lumosity training to target executive functions, and another with subjects with Generalized Anxiety Disorder/Major Depressive Disorder. Participants underwent a combined training regimen that targeted executive function and also used a separate training program to target emotional processing.

Executive function refers to the brain processes involved in planning, impulse control, and abstract thinking, while emotional processing refers to to the ability to tune into positive information. Both these skills have been linked to successful social interactions and emotional well-being. Dr. Gyurak’s intervention included 30 days of Lumosity training in healthy adults and 30 days of a training regimen that combined Lumosity games and emotional processing games for patients. She utilized a variety of pre/post tests that show positive impacts from training: healthy adults in the training group demonstrated reductions in anxiety and depression, and increases in beneficial emotional processing. Patients also experienced similar benefits in symptom reduction.

Further research is necessary to determine the full extent of these transfer effects and real-world behavioral changes. And while it’s too early to say that cognitive and emotional processing training can help you be better at relationships and personal interactions,  the link between emotional well-being and certain skills that Lumosity targets—including attention, executive function, and working memory—makes this a fascinating topic for further study.

The research, conducted by Lumos Labs scientists, examined the degree to which various Lumosity cognitive training exercises transferred to improvements on standard assessments of cognitive ability. The assessments, modeled on those widely used in the clinical and research communities, were different from the training exercises and were designed to measure the efficiency of participants’ core cognitive abilities. In a general linear model analysis including data from over 1,400 individuals, cognitive training with Lumosity was associated with statistically significant improvements on all 3 untrained assessments of cognitive performance included in this analysis. Researchers found that individuals who did more training saw greater improvements on the assessments. These relationships held even when initial performance level and practice effects on tests were controlled for.

These results were based on Lumosity’s database of cognitive training and assessment performance. With over 300 million results amassed from the activities of almost 6 million monthly users, Lumosity currently has the world’s largest database of human cognitive performance.

Lumos Labs researchers, however, weren’t content to simply sit on their findings: they took the analysis a step further. They were able to predict which exercises would have the greatest impact on which outcome measures. These new findings will help Lumos Labs improve Lumosity and make it even more efficient at achieving desired cognitive benefits. In short, the data that we collect from you, the user, is going straight back to improve your Lumosity experience. Thanks for helping us gather important data about how well Lumosity works—training today will improve your mind, but also improve our ability to help you.

Researchers from Stanford might have found a biological marker for Alzheimer’s disease via a simple blood test. This is exciting news given that it might predict the onset of the disease several years before the symptoms begin. The procedure involves examining 18 key proteins in the blood that are typical in Alzheimer’s patients. Preliminary tests have been 90% accurate at detecting the disease. Dr Susanne Sorensen, of the Alzheimer’s Society, said that “Early diagnosis is essential if we are ever to develop treatments that can change the course or halt the progression of dementia rather than just treat the symptoms.”

Lumosity is a brain fitness program designed to take advantage of the brain’s plasticity. In a study first presented at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in Atlanta, researchers found that training with Lumosity over a five week period improves visual attention.

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