Peak, Cambridge University team-up over a brain training game

Peak app

Mobile brain training app maker Peak is launching its first product in collaboration with Cambridge University, designed to train visual and episodic memory while promoting learning.

The training module is based on the Wizard memory game, developed by Professor Barbara Sahakian and colleague Tom Piercy at the Department of Psychiatry at Cambridge University. Rights to the game were licensed to Peak by Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialization company.

Episodic memory is one of the facets of cognitive functioning to be affected in patients with schizophrenia.A study, published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, examined the effects of Wizard on the episodic memory of patients with schizophrenia. It [study] has found that patients who had played the game made significantly fewer errors and needed significantly fewer attempts to remember the location of different patterns relative to the control group. Episodic memory is one of the facets of cognitive functioning to be affected in patients with schizophrenia.

“State-of-the-art neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, combined with the innovative approach at Peak, will help bring the games industry to a new level and promote the benefits of cognitive enhancement,” said Professor Sahakian.

In April, Professor Sahakian joined the board of advisors at Peak where she worked closely with Peak to expand its game offering through the creation of more advanced training courses.

Earlier this year Peak announced its $7 Million Series A funding round led by Creandum and contributed to by existing investors DN Capital, London Venture Partners (LVP) and Qualcomm Ventures.