Memory Protection
On U.S. television, there’s a game called “Amnesia.” Object of the game is to recall as many details as possible of one’s past life. A Dallas-based outfit called Memory Technologies Institute teaches “Mnemonics, the science of memory.” Nintendo, meanwhile, has sold more than 17 million copies worldwide of its Brain Age videogame for the DS player.
Brain fitness is on its way to becoming a big business. Nintendo’s uber-popular Wii videogame console is now being used to help memory-impaired patients recover some of their lost mental dexterity. One facility offering this new form of therapy has dubbed the treatment, “Wii-hab.”
Since its launch in May 2005 Nintendo has sold 17 million copies of Brain Age, a Nintendo DS videogame created by Tohoku University professor Dr. Ryuta Kawashima.
In San Francisco, a new “brain gym” promises to exercise your brain. vibrantBrains claims its “Neurobics Circuit Training” enables participants to work on such skills as memory, reasoning, visual scanning, word recall and quantitative facility using games and exercises. Industry reports suggest that the “brain industry” already generated $250 million in 2007.
As 450 million baby boomers in the western world head into retirement, they’re confronted with something no generation has ever faced before: a massive collective memory loss. Culprits: faster living, multitasking and less mental exercise.
If you can’t recall the name Sarah Marshall even though you just watched a movie called “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” you’re not alone. Welcome to a brave new world of senior moments. Like millions of others, you’re suffering from MCI — mild cognitive impairment.
Scientists report that average scores on memory tests decline steadily after age 25. By midlife, memory erosion accelerates, with humans losing, on average, about 1% of their brain volume each year. A growing reliance on BlackBerrys, calculators and speed-dialing have reduced the need for mental exercises and remembering, causing the brain to deteriorate at a faster rate than ever before.
Another new-age problem may be multitasking. Research by psychologist Denise Park at the University of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana shows that adults who juggle too many balls have more memory complaints than their 70ish parents.
National Institutes of Health research shows that older adults with mild memory impairment can benefit from cognitive training, although not in areas reliant on memorization. While memory training may deliver mixed results, the biotech industry is hard at work developing new drugs that can cure such serious diseases as Alzheimer’s, treatments that are bound to lead to the first “lifestyle” drugs to deal with forgetfulness.
We’ve dubbed this new category of wonder drugs “Memory Protection” — because like computers, which require memory protection to prevent crashes, human beings increasingly appear to be headed in the same direction.
Besides training courses and videogames, many books now deal with the memory loss phenomenon, including Martha Weinman Lear’s Where Did I Leave My Glasses?
At the biotech forefront is Irvine, Calif.-based Cortex Pharmaceuticals, whose Ampakine CX717 clinical trials have drawn widespread media attention. The memory protection market could produce the biggest lifestyle drug yet, because who wouldn’t want to stroll down memory lane faster?
Ubertrends: Digital Lifestyle
Value Propellants: Speed, Time-saving, Convenience
Add comment March 17th, 2008