SAN FRANCISCO, June 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Brain Plasticity
Inc. (BPI), a technology incubator dedicated to the discovery and
development of novel technologies that harness the basic principles
of brain plasticity to improve the lives of people with
neurological and psychiatric disorders, was recently awarded a $2
million grant from the United States Department of Defense.
The grant will fund a two-year clinical trial of an
internet-based program designed to improve cognitive function in
people suffering from cognitive impairment following mild traumatic
brain injuries (TBI) as a result of active duty with the United
States Military. The award of this grant reflects the
tremendous promise of brain-plasticity-based cognitive training
technology, which has already shown to be effective in more than a
dozen clinical trials in healthy aging, and is now entering
clinical trials in schizophrenia and stroke rehabilitation.
TBI has been described as “the signature injury” of the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars, with an estimated 32,243 thousand soldiers and
veterans suffering from head injury in 2010 alone.(1) The
consequences of TBI are enormous – the problems with memory,
concentration, and thinking that accompany head injury can
significantly impair a person’s ability to return to family life,
their job, and their role in their community.
Head injury is not a uniquely military problem – 1.7
million people in the United States have such an injury every year,
and 5.3 million Americans have resulting lifelong
disability.(2)
“TBI can ruin lives, and while existing cognitive therapies can
be helpful, they are often not enough. Brain-plasticity-based
cognitive training offers a fundamentally new approach to treating
these disabling injuries, and because it is delivered over the
internet, it can reach every soldier and veteran in need,” said Dr.
Henry Mahncke, Chief Operating Officer at BPI and Principal
Investigator on
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