A group of 50 participants from across the United States sat at their computers and logged in to a bespoke video game designed by Northeastern University researchers.
The game begins as their playable character, a small astronaut named Lerner, observes a sequence of glowing gems beamed into the air, each with a different shape and color, flashing one-by-one in a specific order. Participants then steer Leaner horizontally across a rocky, alien landscape until they reach a platform holding copies of those same gems. The goal? To recall the precise sequence from the start and zap the gems in the correct order with a bright pink space laser.
The simple side-scrolling game was an original creation from Northeastern’s Brain Game Center for Mental Fitness and Wellbeing. The series of remotely administered tests came as a step forward in Northeastern scientists’ understanding of how specific groups of people experiencing cognitive decline respond to experimental interventions that are personalized to their conditions, according to Brain Game Center director Aaron Seitz.
“A lot of our research is looking at how we can find ways to personalize interventions and to figure out what types of approaches are going to be most useful for different people and different populations,” said Seitz. “This idea that there’s like a one-size-fits-all solution is not quite perfect.”
Read more at Northeastern Global News
Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
