Toronto-based Baycrest, a cognitive science institute affiliated with the University of Toronto, has created a company with MaRS, a nonprofit innovation center in Toronto, to develop and market brain fitness products designed to help adults extend their memory and cognitive abilities. The for-profit company, Cogniciti, will produce a suite of products, games, and training protocols grounded in 20 years of aging brain research at Baycrest. Test marketing will begin next year for the company’s first product, Memory@Work. The corporate training program will teach employees, managers, and team leaders how to use memory strategies to improve personal performance in the workplace. Other products in the test marketing pipeline include brain exercise games for mobile devices and the web. “Converting Baycrest’s outstanding cognitive science research into products and services for the important and rapidly growing brain fitness market represents a very promising opportunity,” says MaRS CEO Ilse Treurnicht, PhD. “Leading scientists at Baycrest have been working with MaRS for the past three years to assemble and shape the research assets and develop the commercialization plan for Cogniciti. The formal launch of the company is a very exciting milestone for both our organizations.”<\/p>\n
The company will develop products based on current knowledge of brain functioning and continually validate their efficacy in different populations, according to Donald Stuss, PhD, senior scientist at Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute, who will provide scientific leadership in product development. The exercise and training interventions will target “strategic” cognitive functions that matter most in people’s lives, including planning and organizing, staying focused on a task, and ignoring irrelevant information. Cogniciti is using an interactive research model for product testing to identify the best cognitive training platforms for customer needs and enable fast-tracking of products from science lab to market.<\/p>\n