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Education

Neuroscape’s Education Division is dedicated to supporting the development of healthy young minds by designing novel diagnostic, learning, and intervention tools for kids. Our division seeks to help children and adolescents build their core cognitive capacities, specifically, the cognitive control abilities that learning relies upon (Note: cognitive control is often referred to as executive function in the education field, and we use the terms interchangeably).

Using sophisticated diagnostic tools and video game technology, we investigate the mechanisms that influence overall cognitive health, learning, and mental and physical wellbeing in youth. The Education Division’s research takes a multi-pronged approach to understand how to support children’s success. At our UCSF research labs, we use in-depth cognitive and neuroimaging assessments to characterize the development of the neural mechanisms that underlie these abilities. Outside of the labs, we use our sophisticated remote research platform – Nexus – to expand access to our technologies to children’s homes. Finally, we partner with K-12 schools to understand how these skills manifest in student’s real-world learning environments.

We are actively recruiting individuals interested in being citizen scientists for our in-lab and at-home studies, as well as educators interested in partnering with us for our in-school research. Our work is dedicated to innovating new ways to support skill growth and helping every child realize their full potential.

Education

Neuroscape’s Education Division is dedicated to supporting the development of healthy young minds by designing novel diagnostic, learning, and intervention tools for kids. Our division seeks to help children and adolescents build their core cognitive capacities, specifically, the cognitive control abilities that learning relies upon (Note: cognitive control is often referred to as executive function in the education field, and we use the terms interchangeably).

Using sophisticated diagnostic tools and video game technology, we investigate the mechanisms that influence overall cognitive health, learning, and mental and physical wellbeing in youth. The Education Division’s research takes a multi-pronged approach to understand how to support children’s success. At our UCSF research labs, we use in-depth cognitive and neuroimaging assessments to characterize the development of the neural mechanisms that underlie these abilities. Outside of the labs, we use our sophisticated remote research platform – Nexus – to expand access to our technologies to children’s homes. Finally, we partner with K-12 schools to understand how these skills manifest in student’s real-world learning environments.

We are actively recruiting individuals interested in being citizen scientists for our in-lab and at-home studies, as well as educators interested in partnering with us for our in-school research. Our work is dedicated to innovating new ways to support skill growth and helping every child realize their full potential.

Education

Neuroscape’s Education Division is dedicated to supporting the development of healthy young minds by designing novel diagnostic, learning, and intervention tools for kids. Our division seeks to help children and adolescents build their core cognitive capacities, specifically, the cognitive control abilities that learning relies upon (Note: cognitive control is often referred to as executive function in the education field, and we use the terms interchangeably).

Using sophisticated diagnostic tools and video game technology, we investigate the mechanisms that influence overall cognitive health, learning, and mental and physical wellbeing in youth. The Education Division’s research takes a multi-pronged approach to understand how to support children’s success. At our UCSF research labs, we use in-depth cognitive and neuroimaging assessments to characterize the development of the neural mechanisms that underlie these abilities. Outside of the labs, we use our sophisticated remote research platform – Nexus – to expand access to our technologies to children’s homes. Finally, we partner with K-12 schools to understand how these skills manifest in student’s real-world learning environments.

We are actively recruiting both individuals interested in being citizen scientists for our in-lab studies as well as educators interested in partnering with us for our in-school research. Our work is dedicated to innovating new ways to support skill growth and helping every child realize their full potential. 

Cognitive and Learning Diagnostics

Our diagnostic work focuses on understanding cognitive and learning abilities at the individual student level, as well as understanding relationships between these abilities and real-world outcomes critical to youth success. These studies use precision cognitive mapping tools, such as ACE, to track how cognitive control (or executive function) abilities are related to learning and wellbeing, how they develop over time, and whether they can be improved using our targeted cognitive interventions.

Our diagnostic research seeks to understand the spectrum of cognitive abilities and brain function in young minds. First, we work in partnership with our Neuroscience Division to advance our understanding of neurocognitive development in typically developing youth. Second, we work directly with our Clinical Division to extend this research to clinical populations, allowing us to understand how to best support students with cognitive and learning challenges. Currently, our work with the Clinical Division places special emphasis on students with learning differences and youth with neurodevelopmental and mental health disorders.

Our ongoing studies range from rapid, precision assessments of cognition and behavior in ecologically valid contexts such as in school and at home, to in-depth characterizations of these abilities and underlying brain function using advanced neuroimaging tools such as fMRI and EEG in our UCSF labs.

Recently, we used ACE in a large-scale study of over 1,000 elementary and middle schoolers to show that it tracks important developmental milestones of EF growth and that ACE metrics are linked to multiple indices of scholastic success.

Therapeutics to Support Cognition and Learning

We work hand in hand with our Technology Division to develop video game technology that supports the development of cognitive abilities in young minds. This research tests how we can improve a broad range of outcomes using our closed-loop, adaptive video game programs.
Recently, we have shown that several of our novel interventions developed at Neuroscape can improve attention abilities – a core cognitive function that facilitates sustained focus and inhibition of internal and external distraction. We also have exciting new evidence that our interventions can lead to downstream improvements on academic skills that rely on cognitive control, such as reading fluency.

We have a number of ongoing intervention studies in broad populations of youth, such as typically developing children and adolescents and those with dyslexia. We are also using our new remote research platform – Nexus – to increase access to our interventions to a variety of real-world settings beyond our UCSF research labs, such as students’ homes and classrooms.

Ultimately, our goal is to deliver personalized interventions, targeted to each child’s unique profile, to make significant impacts on their cognition, learning, academic achievement, and overall health and wellbeing.

Bridging the gap between
neuroscience and technology.

Bridging the gap between neuroscience and technology.

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