Smartphone apps

Smartphone App Can Significantly Improve Memory Recall

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Summary: A new smartphone app, dubbed HippoCamera helps to significantly improve memory recall and could have applications for improving memory for those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The app mimics the function of the hippocampus, constructing and maintaining memories. The app enhances biological memory encoding by boosting attention to daily events and consolidating them more distinctly.

Source: University of Toronto

Researchers at the University of Toronto have demonstrated that a new smartphone application helps to significantly improve memory recall, which could prove beneficial for individuals in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of memory impairment.

Dubbed HippoCamera for its ability to mimic the function of the brain’s hippocampus in memory construction and retention, the app enhances the encoding of memories stored in the brain by boosting attention to daily events and consolidating them more distinctly—thus later enabling richer, more comprehensive recall.

In a two-step process, HippoCamera users record a short video of up to 24 seconds of a moment they want to remember with a brief eight-second audio description of the event.

The app combines the two elements just as the brain’s hippocampus would, with the video component sped up to mimic aspects of hippocampal function and to facilitate efficient review.

Users then replay cues produced by HippoCamera at later times on a curated and regular basis to reinforce the memory and enable detailed recall.

“We found that memories with an associated HippoCamera cue were long-lasting, and that it worked for everyone in the study—healthy older adults, those starting to show cognitive decline and even one case with severe amnesia due to an acquired brain injury,” said study co-author Morgan Barense, a professor in the department of psychology in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science and Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience.

“Many months after the initial part of the study ended, and participants had not watched their HippoCamera cues, they were able to recall these memories in rich detail.”

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that regular users of the app were able to recall more than 50% more details about everyday experiences that took place as many as six months earlier than if they had only recorded events and never replayed them.

The new research suggests that systematic reactivation of memories for recent real-world experiences can help to maintain a bridge between the present and past in older adults and holds promise for people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of memory impairment.

The study also found that reviewing memory cues with HippoCamera resulted in more positive sentiment during later retrieval.

“There’s something about being better able to remember these events that made people feel closer to them and more positive,” said Barense, who is leading the development of the app and is adjunct scientist at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest.

“This is a really important finding given what we know about dementia and the fact that positive reminiscence or focusing on positive life events and positive emotions can improve both memory and well-being in dementia.”

For the study, participants recorded unique HippoCamera clips for everyday events that they wanted to remember and subsequently replayed these memory cues approximately eight times over a two-week period in one experiment, and over a 10-week period in a second experiment.

The researchers then initiated a cued recall task where they showed the participants their memory cues and asked them to describe everything they could remember about each event.

This was followed by fMRI brain scanning sessions where researchers measured patterns of brain activity while participants saw their cues and completed a memory test. Three months later, after not practicing their HippoCamera memories and not having access to the cues, the participants were asked to recall these events a second time.

“On average, we saw on later recall an increase of more than 50% in the amount of rich, detailed information that someone was able to remember about events that happened as many as 200 days ago, which is significant,” said Chris Martin, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at Florida State University and lead author of the study.

“Memory is truly self-sustaining —a strong memory cue can bring along another memory, which can feed into another. You just have to focus on the cue in the first place.”

The brain scans showed that replaying HippoCamera memory cues changed the way in which these everyday experiences were coded in the hippocampus, which has a well-established role in storing detailed memories for recent experiences.

Recall-related activity in the hippocampus was more distinctive, meaning that HippoCamera replay helps to ensure that memories for different events remain separate from one another in the brain.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/i6vCjyTdiiU?feature=oembedCredit: University of Toronto

“The more detailed recollection seen earlier in the study was associated with more differentiated memory signals in the hippocampus,” said Martin.

“That HippoCamera is aiding the hippocampus in distinctly encoding memories, so they do not become confused with one another, explains why users are able to recall past events in such great detail.

“It’s evidence that rich and detailed memory reactivation promotes memory differentiation at the neural level, and that this allows us to mentally re-experience the past with vivid detail.”

One key factor in HippoCamera’s effectiveness, the researchers say, is the sense of purpose and intention inherent in its use. By its very design, the intervention prompts users to think about what it is that they want to remember and why a particular moment is important to them—and then regularly re-engage with the memories in a meaningful way.

This shows the app on a cell phone
With an easy-to-use interface, HippoCamera is a personalized way to boost recall of daily experiences and enhance activity in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that plays a key role in memory.

“Someone who is committed to using HippoCamera is going to go through their lives paying attention to what is happening to them, asking themselves if this is an event they want to capture,” said Barense.

“If it is, they’re going to take the time to stop and describe that event. And that act of approaching events in our lives with more attention is going to be good for memory.

“Then later, there’s an intention with how we study those memories, taking the time to review them using optimal learning techniques.”

Google to ban all smartphone apps that tell the truth about health in latest bid to protect LIES of Big Pharma and the vaccine industry

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Google Play, the Android smartphone-based app store, has unveiled sweeping new rules that ban apps deemed to contain or promote “misleading health claims that contradict existing medical consensus, or (that) can cause harm to users.”

Issued on August 31, Google Play’s new “health misinformation” policy is an in-app censorship sweep that targets any and all apps that even so much as question official health policy about vaccines, including the idea that “vaccines can alter one’s DNA.”

Google is also going after apps that advocate for “harmful, unapproved treatments” such as vitamin C, vitamin D, ivermectin, or any number of other remedies that the government has deemed to be “misinformation.” (Related: Google no longer allows any mention of covid vaccines in Google Surveys.)

According to Google, “conversion therapy” is another “harmful health practice” that cannot be advocated for in any apps available on Google Play. One wonders if this means that Bible apps are now forbidden since the Holy Word addresses unnatural homosexual behavior.

Big Tech is the government’s Ministry of Truth

The timing of this new policy change coincides with a major shift in the government position on things like masking and even vaccinating. Suddenly, the government is no longer pushing these things like it once was, which begs the question: Will Google be able to keep up with accurate censorship?

In 2020, Tony Fauci was insistent that Pfizer’s mRNA (messenger RNA) injection was 90 percent effective against the Fauci Flu, which he called extraordinary. Fast-forward to 2022 and now Deborah Birx is basically admitting that she, Fauci, and others lied about the shots.

The newest claim is that everyone “knew” that Chinese Virus injections were not effective at preventing infection. They all just lied about it to pad the pockets of Big Pharma and complete Operation Warp Speed.

Big Tech, meanwhile, has struggled to get the narrative right at any given time. On one day, social media and tech platforms are having to silence people for saying that the shots are ineffective, while the next the government itself is saying they are ineffective.

Still to this day, Facebook is banning users of notoriety who claims that covid injections might not keep a person safe from infection. YouTube is doing the same thing, even going against World Health Organization (WHO) directives about the shots.

“Even after the consensus changed and some of the censorship rules were quietly dropped, most of the censored posts and channels weren’t reinstated,” reports Reclaim the Net.

“The new health misinformation rules add to Google Play’s extensive set of existing misinformation rules which prohibit apps containing ‘election misinformation’ and ‘misleading’ content. Google Play has already removed thousands of apps under these existing rules.”

In the comment section, someone wrote that the type of censorship in which Google is now engaging “is just beyond insane.”

“Someone REALLY needs to develop a new censorship-free alternative to Google and Apple,” this person added.

Another asked where Google starts and the government ends. It is still unclear, this person added, whether Google is a private company or a government entity in disguise. Either way, Google equals technocratic fascism.

“There’s no virus,” added another. “Just a lab-made spike protein. And a fake test was used to create a scare-scam-demic.”

Someone else chimed in that the so-called “Great Reset” is obviously well underway. The question remains: Will it be successful, or will the tides turn just in the nick of time?

“It is no wonder that Google’s logo has a hidden 666,” wrote another.

The latest news coverage about Big Tech’s relentless fight against truth can be found at Censorship.news.

Blood Pressure Smartphone App Doesn’t Beat Traditional Home Monitoring

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Here’s another vote for less screen time. Tracking blood pressure with a smartphone app won’t lead to any greater drop in blood pressure than simply self-monitoring with the kind of device that doctors typically suggest be used at home.

That’s according to a new study involving patients with high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, who were randomly placed into one of two groups. Half of the people in the study self-measured their blood pressure with a standard monitor alone. These devices consist of a measuring unit attached to a cuff made of a piece of rubber or similar material that is wrapped around your arm and then inflated to measure your blood pressure. The other half, or the second group, self-measured their blood pressure using the standard device paired with a connected smartphone app.

Both groups achieved nearly identical reductions in blood pressure (about 11 points in systolic blood pressure – the top number) over 6 months, reported satisfaction with the monitoring process, and shared their readings with their doctors with similar frequency.

The study involved 2,101 adults, generally middle-aged or older, who said they would try to reduce their blood pressure by at least 10 points.

“By itself, standard self-measured blood pressure has minimal effect on BP control,” wrote lead author Mark J. Pletcher, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues in JAMA Internal Medicine. To actually improve blood pressure control, there also needs to be patient feedback, counseling, or other opportunities for intervention.

The researchers also saw other similar results between the two groups in the study. For example, 70% of those who used the app said they would recommend following the process they used to track their blood pressure to a friend, compared with 69% of participants who followed the standard approach.

New devices that link with smartphone apps, like the one used in this trial, send blood pressure measurements to the patient’s smartphone. The apps allow for tracking measurements, interpret the results, and can send reminders to measure blood pressure and take medications. They also offer recommendations for a healthier lifestyle and provide nudges to discuss your blood pressure with your doctor, among other things, the researchers explained.

Pletcher noted that it’s hard to get people to actively use health-related apps for long periods of time.

“There is so much competition for people’s attention on their phone,” he said.

But he hasn’t given up on these apps, saying that “with the right technology and connectivity and user experience, they still could be game-changing for managing” high blood pressure and other long-term health issues.

Matthew Jung, MD, of the University of Southern California, says the study is noteworthy for several reasons, including its large size, the similar level of comfort with technology reported by both groups, and representation of Black and Hispanic people.

But he also pointed out several study limits, including that one-third of the people studied never confirmed they received a device, less than half of the group assigned to using the app said they used it, and the study only lasted 10 weeks.

FDA approves first smartphone app for bolus insulin delivery

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The FDA has approved the first smartphone application capable of initiating insulin delivery for insulin pump wearers, according to a company press release.

Tandem Diabetes Care has received clearance to offer a bolus insulin dosing feature as part of its t:connect mobile application. The app, which connects to the t:slim X2 insulin pump, will include a new feature giving users the ability to program and cancel bolus insulin requests through their smartphone.

Sign outside FDA HQ in Washington, DC.

“This FDA clearance further validates our commitment to innovation and the diabetes community by providing one of the most requested feature enhancements,” John Sheridan, president and CEO for Tandem Diabetes Care, said in the release. “With the improvements in diabetes management provided by Tandem’s Control-IQ technology, giving a meal bolus is now the most common reason a person interacts with their pump, and the ability to do so using a smartphone app offers a convenient and discrete solution.”

The t:connect mobile app, which is available for iOS and Android devices, provides 24-hour glucose trends, pump status changes and insulin therapy data for users who pair it with the t:slim X2 insulin pump. The insulin pump can function independently from the app, giving users the ability to view pump therapy data, program requests and cancel bolus insulin requests from the pump.

The bolus insulin dosing feature will be offered at no additional cost for new t:slim X2 insulin pump customers as well as existing in-warranty customers through a remote software update, according to the company. The update will be rolled out in a series of limited launch groups in the spring. According to the press release, limited launch participants have already been selected. An expanded launch of the new feature is expected later in the summer.

iPhone apps: Therapists that are always on call.

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Smartphone apps that act as surrogate “therapists” for conditions like depression and anxiety are becoming increasingly common. But there is still a lot to understand about how – and if – they work.

Think of a therapy session and you might picture the patient reclined on a worn leather Chesterfield being questioned by a mild-mannered, caring doctor. But what if you could access this kind of psychological help without leaving the comfort of your own sofa?

That is the promise of “therapy” apps for smartphones, which hope to make treatment – or at least help – for conditions like depression and anxiety available to anyone, anywhere.

Take a look at Apple’s App Store, the largest app marketplace, and you will find more than 100 “medical” apps tagged with the word “depression”, for example. They range from apps like Moody Me, which simply help people keep track of what makes them happy to others,  to iCouch CBT, which claims to “help you train your emotions and feel better” by offering more specific strategies, similar to those which patients learn in professional therapy.

It is easy to understand this surge. Smartphones are increasingly popular with more than 50% of the population in the US owning one, for example. And depression is also becoming more common. According to the World Health Organization, it’s the third greatest ‘disease burden’ worldwide, just behind lower respiratory infections and diarrheal diseases. It is expected to rise to number one in developed countries by 2030.

Apps that cost $1.99 a pop have the potential to reach millions of people who either cannot or will not engage with more traditional therapy. As a result, Dr Steve Daviss of the American Psychological Association describes iPads and iPods as the physician’s “electronic black bag”.

“They don’t replace the role of a therapist, but they can augment the work we do between sessions.”

For example, a patient tapping an emoticon to say how they feel is a lot less intrusive than filling out paper diaries and can help a doctor track mood swings. And because the device is always on and in a person’s pocket, it allows people to carry out beneficial exercises regularly and discretely.

Role play

One of the firms working in this growing industry is Hoa’s Toolshop, a Swedish startup that creates digital apps for personal development. “We are developing people, not just apps,” says Hoa Ly, a clinical psychologist and Founder of the firm. “We want to make people use apps that really matter, instead of just Facebook and Instagram.”

Hoa’s flagship service, Viary, is a “behavior-change” application designed to help users overcome depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders. To do this, it prescribes a mix of old therapy tricks with new apps which make it easy to collect and track important data on behaviors and actions.

“Data motivates people” Ly explains, “and with it personal development can become more concrete and measurable. We are translating an analog world to a digital world.”

To create Viary, Ly used elements of a common type of treatment called cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Specifically he uses so-called “behavior activation”- a common treatment for depression that encourages patients to perform specific actions or behaviors that help them change their thoughts and reactions to the world and feel better.

Together with a therapist, Viary’s clients choose specific actions that will help them achieve a desired goal. For example a client may decide that exercising, eating healthier food, and listening to classical music makes them feel less depressed. Viary sets reminders for these behaviors- walk for 15 minutes every morning, take a vegetarian lunch, tune into some Beethoven etc, – and the app then collects data on these completed actions. Therapists or coaches can then monitor a client’s progress in real time and even respond.

“This small reinforcement can matter quite a lot” Ly says.

The approach is similar to Nike’s highly popular Nike + running app, Ly claims, which encourages users to set personal running goals, track activities, find new running routes and share the results with friends. Nike’s tagline, “stay motivated, challenged and connected” is in essence what most behavior-change therapy apps like Viary are all about.

Dr Paul Blenkiron, a consultant psychiatrist in the UK, says that because CBT therapy uses a lot of self-guided ‘homework’, apps like this certainly have a role to play. “They offer portability, choice, flexibility and ease of access to your own self help plan when you need it,” he explains. But, he adds, they are only for “practical coping, not ‘black couch’ therapy.”

Puzzling games

In fact, there is still a long way to go to understand if – and how – these apps work at all. Most practicing therapists are unaware of the existence of these apps, and little research has been done confirming their effectiveness. And, even when studies have been done, they tend to have confusing results, says Dr Richard McNally, director of clinical training at Harvard University.

“There’s still a lot of research going on- there’s positive findings and null findings,” he says. “It’s really up in the air.”

At his lab, PhD students have been conducting research on the use of smartphone apps to treat anxiety, through a technique known as attention bias modification.

This is based on lab tests that show people with anxiety – a feeling of fear or dread – tend to have a “bias” towards noticing hostile, or angry faces in a crowd, rather than neutral, happy or relaxed ones. The idea is that by reducing this bias, you can short circuit the feelings that follow, interrupting the feeling of anxiety.

The team tested the idea using a simple game app, which showed people two faces, one with a neutral expression and one looking hostile. The faces appear one above the other on the screen before disappearing, to be replaced by a letter on one half of the screen. The game requires patients to identify this letter.

If all of this sounds very abstract, that is because the true intention of the game is not to identify letters. Rather, the letter appears in a position that encourages the user to shift their gaze from the part of the screen that showed the hostile face. Play the game enough, the logic goes, and a person should train their eyes to look away automatically, providing them with an impulsive control in real life situations that can help control anxiety.

Or at least that is the theory. Hundreds of participants took part in the study, some of which showed a reduction in their anxiety. Yet, other people showed no change and, perhaps more puzzlingly, the control group also showed a reduction in anxiety.

“It totally surprised us,” he says. It appeared that just by playing the game with the belief that it would reduce anxiety, participants actually did reduce their anxiety, something commonly known as the “placebo effect.”

The results have left him with a “cautious optimism”, as he puts it. “We still need to know the variables of when and how these app treatments work. We need to do more proper randomised control trials.”

Source:BBC

 

 

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