On May 16, Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute (TCCI®) announced Pavlov: Brain’it on, its first brain cognition training game jointly developed with Tencent Games. It is expected to go live within this year.
The game is designed to improve the cognitive ability of teenagers. It consists of dozens of mini games that have different rules but are equally intriguing. It will only take players a few minutes to improve different aspects of their brain’s cognitive ability including attention, speed of thinking, memory, induction and inference as well as spatial imagination.
Yang Zhi, TCCI® Investigator, Professor at Shanghai Mental Health Center, and Professor at the Institute of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, is responsible for the academic research supporting the game development. According to Zhi, cognition is very important for human beings and can be gradually improved through training.
TCCI® has formed a strong academic research team to work with NExT Studios, the development team at Tencent Games. Their design and development process is based on brain cognitive models well-recognized in international academic circles. They have also carried out numerous online and offline tests by employing scientific methods such as electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor brain activity and the cognitive impact in different game scenarios. By applying learning from these tests, the games can help teenagers improve their attention, executive capability, scenario and working memory, inference and deduction abilities. Once live, the game will be continuously based on player feedback. The goal is to develop the game into an innovative tool for evaluating cognitive ability and developing personalized cognitive training.
TCCI® has always attached great importance to the application of Internet and AI technologies to help the general public improve cognitive abilities and to assist in the treatment of specific cognitive disorders. Previously, for example, TCCI® supported Huashan Hospital in the research and development of a VR game for screening cognitive disorders among the elderly and a product approved by the FDA last year as a digital medicine for treating mental and neurological diseases.
Driven by their intense desire to understand how the human brain perceives the world and how these perceptions impact our behavior, husband and wife Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo established the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute in 2016 with a mission to benefit humanity. By promoting a holistic and interdisciplinary approach, the Chen Institute drives fundamental brain research through three key areas – brain discovery, brain treatment, and brain development.