Brain Training Research

HeadStrong is conducting a number of internal research projects, and is in collaboration with several institutions.  For example the results from exercise performances will be used as a baseline against which progress and short and long term benefits of the HeadStrong brain training program can be measured.  We will describe these studies and results further when they are available.

Lifetime of experiences Questionnaire
HeadStrong is hosting the Lifetime of experiences Questionnaire (LEQ) as part of a collaborative project with the University of New South Wales Australia, School of Psychiatry.  The LEQ has undergone vigorous neuroscientific and statistical analysis, and has been published in Psychological Medicine in 2006. 

The LEQ was designed to assess the amount of complex mental activity a person has acquired throughout their lifespan as a way of determining the extent of their brain reserve and their risk of developing dementia.  The greater your brain reserve the less risk of dementia- so aim to have a score over 60.

Brain reserve is a term within neuropsychology that applies to the insulating benefit of having a mentally active brain.  Essentially this means that the more demanding complex functions a brain performs over the lifespan the greater its reserve or cushion against harm.  Higher brain reserve is associated with a lower risk of incident dementia, and participating in complex mental activity in later life was found to have significant reduction in the number of cases of dementia.

If you are over 65 years of age, you can take the LEQ questionnaire here.

HeadStrong Brain Fitness Questionnaire
The HBFQ was developed specifically by HeadStrong to assess the amount of subjective difficulty people experience within their daily lives that result from cognitive difficulties or mishaps such as forgetting, having slowed thinking, or being unable to pay attention, in order to provide a personal brain training program for each of its subscribers.

The HBFQ provides information regarding the type of difficulties experienced so the brain training can increase your brain reserve and brain fitness in required cognitive domains.  Level of concern impacts upon motivation and HeadStrong wants to provide programs to match individual need and motivation. 

The questionnaire has been validated using statistics and neuropsychological knowledge, and the responses of over 500 hundred people have been analyzed in order to obtain some normative data.

Anyone can take the HeadStrong Brain Fitness Questionnaire, by clicking here.