>AKL-T01 is an investigational digital therapeutic that uses a proprietary algorithm designed to improve attention and related cognitive control processes, by training interference management at an adaptive and personalised high degree of difficulty. Interference is instantiated through a video game-like interface displaying two tasks that are to be done in parallel (multitasking): a perceptual discrimination targeting task in which users respond to the instructed stimulus targets and ignore the stimulus distractors (similar to a Go–No-Go task) and a sensory motor navigation task in which users continuously adjust their location to interact with or avoid positional targets.
It seems the crux of their "tech" is simply a game that tries to get you to balance your focus between two tasks and punish/reward you for performance on that. Reviews claim the game feels like it was thrown together in a couple weeks because it probably was, because "multitask two different things and train yourself to manage the distractions they produce" is such a trivial concept that it already exists as at least one video game I know of (https://store.steampowered.com/app/640290/Super_Multitasking...) and it's been a genre for at least decades, and the only novelty they have introduced is an "algorithm" that is most likely "as they succeed at managing the distractions, make it harder", otherwise known as "dynamic difficulty" which goes back to at least the mid-2000s.
People rarely play these games for fun because practicing managing your attention is really hard and stressful and is basically the opposite of what most people are doing video games for. The reviews for example point out that the game is extremely hard very quickly, and they don't seem to realize that's the point: To explicitly challenge your ability to respond to distractions as practice.
Most games IMO do not fit this pattern enough to help ADHD. Further looking, I see their entire test of outcomes was a singular ADHD test called "TOVA", which primarily tests reaction time to a stimulus.
So, their paper (not an independent study BTW) says that if you play a game that challenges your reaction time for 20 minutes every day, you will do better on a test that asks you to have good reaction time for 21.6 (why) minutes.
Wow
IMO selling such a game as a subscription and "medicine" is pretty abhorrent. The only reason to do so is to charge absurd prices for a very simple game.
It seems the crux of their "tech" is simply a game that tries to get you to balance your focus between two tasks and punish/reward you for performance on that. Reviews claim the game feels like it was thrown together in a couple weeks because it probably was, because "multitask two different things and train yourself to manage the distractions they produce" is such a trivial concept that it already exists as at least one video game I know of (https://store.steampowered.com/app/640290/Super_Multitasking...) and it's been a genre for at least decades, and the only novelty they have introduced is an "algorithm" that is most likely "as they succeed at managing the distractions, make it harder", otherwise known as "dynamic difficulty" which goes back to at least the mid-2000s.
People rarely play these games for fun because practicing managing your attention is really hard and stressful and is basically the opposite of what most people are doing video games for. The reviews for example point out that the game is extremely hard very quickly, and they don't seem to realize that's the point: To explicitly challenge your ability to respond to distractions as practice.
Most games IMO do not fit this pattern enough to help ADHD. Further looking, I see their entire test of outcomes was a singular ADHD test called "TOVA", which primarily tests reaction time to a stimulus.
So, their paper (not an independent study BTW) says that if you play a game that challenges your reaction time for 20 minutes every day, you will do better on a test that asks you to have good reaction time for 21.6 (why) minutes.
Wow
IMO selling such a game as a subscription and "medicine" is pretty abhorrent. The only reason to do so is to charge absurd prices for a very simple game.