Brain Fitness Programs

Overcoming the challenges involved in brain training.
Since the early 2000s, brain training has spread throughout the world and into various fields such as education and entertainment. Professor Ryuta Kawashima (pictured on the left), a world-renowned pioneer in brain exercise programs, reveals the future of brain training at a press conference in Tokyo, Japan.

Limitations of conventional brain training programs so far.
Since brain activity changes under different conditions throughout the day, it was difficult to detect the effectiveness of brain training programs. However, real-time visualization of the brain’s activity is finally possible with NeU’s advanced technologies and applications.

The next generation of brain training is truly amazing!
Brain activity can now be easily measured with NeU’s portable brain activity measurement device, the HOT-1000. Using optical topography (NIRS) technology, the HOT-1000 can show the state of the brain in real-time, making it possible to “visualize” the effectiveness of a brain training program.

The future of brain fitness is finally here.
As part of a daily routine, many of us measure our body weight, blood pressure, and so forth. With NeU’s user-friendly devices, brain activity measurement can now be part of everyone’s daily routine!

Brain training on a daily basis!
Just like muscle-strength training, the brain too can increase its performance regardless of age with proper training. Brain training can now be performed by anyone, anywhere and anytime; from maintaining the mental health of the elderly, increasing brain power for professionals who want to improve work productivity, and even for youngsters such as junior and senior high school students who want to improve their grades.

NeU’s next-generation brain training increases the “Quality of Life”.
Effective brain training is an important part to achieve a healthy “quality of life”. Moreover, from the perspective of business enterprises, providing services related to “brain health” can promote industry growth.

Intellectual Functioning (Baltes et al., 1990). Brain function continues to decline after the age of 25.
The cognitive function of the brain such as perception, memory, knowledge, and so forth, has been found to decrease after the age of 25.

Brain function can be trained.
According to research done at Kawashima Laboratory at the Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer (IDAC), Tohoku University, the volume of the cerebral cortex is increased by brain training (working memory training). Moreover, memory and learning abilities are improved, together with an increase in concentration and creative ability. Thus, continuous brain training is important to prevent cognitive function from decreasing with age and to improve overall cognitive functions.

*The red and yellow-orange areas reflect the increase of cerebral cortex volume that comes with training.

The “Stress Manager” smartphone app was developed based on the knowledge of brain science and mindfulness to support stress reduction while measuring brain activity in real-time with an ultra-compact brain sensor (XB-01). This app is intended for both individuals and corporations, with services offered currently in Japan only.
The advancement of the information society brings forth an era of augmented stress due to an increase in information and complexity of communication, leading to various social problems such as a rise in the number of employees taking leaves of absence due to mental illnesses. Although efforts to reduce stress in the past have included work style reforms, more attention is now given to measure and address internal stress factors through therapeutic techniques such as mindfulness. Mindfulness is the psychological process of “calming one’s mental state of mind”, which is achieved by focusing one’s conscious awareness on the present moment. Studies have confirmed that mindfulness has positive effects on an individual’s mental state such as stress reductions; and in brain science, calming of the mind is thought to be associated with the relatively reduced activity in the default mode network (DMN), a brain network implicated in self-related thinking and mind wandering. By attaching NeU’s ultra-compact brain sensor (XB-01) to the center of the forehead, together with the “Stress Mananger” app that supports meditation while monitoring DMN activity levels in real-time, individuals are able to learn, practice and master meditation techniques to help reduce their stress.

The “Active Brain CLUB” is a new service that uses NeU’s XB-01 to provide cognitive function training while measuring brain activity at home, and is intended for senior citizens in their 50s-60s who want to maintain their brain functions and for individuals in their 30s-40s who want to improve their work performance.
Recent studies have revealed that cognitive function and cerebral cortex volume improves significantly by training, and we believe that brain training under the supervision of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima (NeU’s CTO) will lead to a better quality of life of many individuals. From around December 2018, NeU’s “Active Brain CLUB” will have two courses: a “basic” and “standard” course. The “Basic Course” combines the XB-01 and a visualization application for brain activity. For example, by presenting cerebral activity casually, an individual’s focus and memory ability can improve, leading to an improvement in work productivity and efficiency in learning. Since continuing training is vital, the “Standard Course” includes several added programs such as neurofeedback-type cognitive function training, aerobic exercise + cognitive function training, stress coping, and so forth. Moreover, by collaborating with various partner companies, we also hope to realize more value-added services for students, workers, senior citizens, including areas such as learning support, capacity development, health promotion and so forth.

NeU, in collaboration with Well Link (a leading company in measuring stress conditions of working professionals), have developed a smartphone-based “Self-Check & Training Service” to help employees better cope with everyday stresses.
“BEST” is composed of two sections: a “self-check” and a “full-scale” brain training program. First, individuals can perform a quick 20 second daily “self-check” by selecting a part of the body that they feel may be affected by stress factors. Then, a simple brain-training exercise using a smartphone can be done in just 1 minute to refresh the brain. Second, the “full-scale” brain training uses a simplified brain activity measurement device utilizing optical topography (NIRS) technology that can also be done on a daily basis in just 5 minutes. The full-scale training consists of stress reduction exercises through neuro-biofeedback to improve memory, cognitive function, and so forth. The ultimate goal is to improve and organization’s workforce performance and productivity by providing solutions for a healthier and stress-free workplace.

The “ExBrain AERO” provides “brain-training” and a “brain-check”, and is now being offered in facilities such as fitness clubs to maintain and improve cognitive functions in real-time
The “ExBrain AERO” consists of two parts, brain training and brain check. “Training” allows the individual to train cognitive functions such as cognitive speed, caution and restraint, memory power, and so forth. Moreover, “Check” also evaluates and visualizes the level of cognitive function of the user. Users can check their current brain activity, during brain training, and periodically check their results to maintain and improve cognitive function. It is known from current research that performing brain training together with physical exercise training (at facilities such as fitness clubs) results to a more effective brain training. For example, after performing aerobic exercises, BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor) is secreted, which is a growth factor of neurons. By performing ExBrain AERO after aerobic exercises, individuals can strengthen their brain’s plasticity more effectively and train the brain better.

NeU-Up is an all-in-one self-check kiosk that measures brain activity in the prefrontal cortex using the latest in brain sensors.
The NeU-Up measurement kiosk is Japan’s first self-check terminal that can measure anyone’s brain activity level, such as “processing speed”, “attention”, “memory” and much more, with quick real-time results! Please contact us for more details on pricing and usage information.

NeU’s HOT-1000 is a revolutionary portable brain activity measurement device.
Finally, measuring and visualizing brain activity can now be performed in any environment with NeU’s HOT-1000. Truly a light-weight, portable and easy-to-use device! Near infrared light is used to monitor blood flow changes related to brain activity and the HOT-1000’s wireless, light-weight headset was designed to minimize user-fatigue for use in almost any environment. Data can also be collected through smartphone and tablet connections, making this headset simple to use, and multi-user connectivity makes it possible to measure and collect data from group interactions.
Pricing on the HOT-1000: please contact us for a quotation.

NeU’s N-POD is a unique device for visualizing brain activity.
Used in conjunction with the HOT-1000, the N-POD expresses brain activity by sound and color, which makes this innovative device an important tool in the education industry, especially for students and social workers who want to make improvements to how schools are educating their pupils. The N-POD expresses brain activity through changes in colors and sounds, and with different intensities in a easy-to-visualize manner. For example, when there is less brain activity, the N-POD turns blue; when there is high brain activity, the color changes to red. The N-POD is scheduled to be released to the public in October 2018.

At NeU, we are continually developing new innovative ways to incorporate the N-POD for learning, brain training, stress coping and rehabilitation exercises. Please contact us for further details.