A team of researchers is testing a prescription video game to see if it can help people who have persistent memory and attention problems after recovering from COVID-19. Many people who have survived the disease say they are often confused and have difficulty concentrating, and research shows that symptoms can remain around months after recovery.
Faith Gunning, a neuropsychologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, believes that EndeavorRX the video game may be able to treat some of these symptoms. The game, developed by Akili Interactive, made history last summer, when it became the first video game to be signed by the Food and Drug Administration to be prescribed as a medical treatment. It is approved as a treatment for children aged eight to 12 years with ADHD.
But Gunning believes he could help other groups of people. “I was already interested in the game,” she says. Then he began to see signs that people with COVID-19 might be battling some of the same symptoms that the game may be targeting. She is launching a study to test whether she can help those patients. A group of people who had COVID-19 and have cognitive problems will play the game, and the study will see if their symptoms improve more than a group of COVID-19 survivors with similar symptoms who do not play the game.
“We need more interventions in general, in cognitive and mental health, to be able to enter the community,” says Gunning.
The Verge talked to Gunning about why the game, if it turns out to be effective, could be a good strategy.
This interview was slightly edited for clarity.
What kind of cognitive problems do you see in people who have had COVID-19?
We did a study on patients following a COVID-19 infection. I will warn that these are people who needed hospitalization and had rehabilitation before being discharged from home. So, these were individuals who had moderate to severe COVID-19 – so it is not representative of the general population. What we found is that a very high percentage of individuals had disorders that ranged from mild to severe in their cognitive function.
I found a pattern that includes things like interrupting attention and the ability to do several things at once. We found that a high percentage had difficulty working memory, which is the ability to keep information in your head while doing something else. All of these are important skills for everything we do.
Why did you like the video game Akili Interactive?
The game always intrigued me. I’ve been working with the video game for a few years now. In fact, it targets an important function: the ability to do several things at once. It improves it and we have seen that the game improves it in people with ADHD, in older adults and there are some indications that it helps people with multiple sclerosis.
It targets these really important cognitive skills and is really engaging. One of the problems you often encounter with cognitive interventions is that, frankly, they are boring. So people won’t do them. And if people don’t do them, they won’t work.
What did your non-COVID-19 research find on this video game?
We use it in older adults who have some cognitive problems and in middle-aged and older adults who have depression and other cognitive problems. And what I found is that those people show changes in the brain. We have shown that there is an improvement in connectivity in the brain networks that support attention and executive skills, and we have some preliminary data that show improved mood.
Why do you think this could help COVID-19 survivors?
We do not believe that everyone recovering from COVID-19 needs cognitive intervention. But there are enough data to suggest that a significant number of people who have suffered from COVID-19 will have some cognitive problems. These disorders are not only specific to people recovering from COVID-19; we see them in many conditions that affect the brain. I think that if we can improve these functions, no matter what causes them, we can improve their daily lives.
We are looking for two main results: cognitive skills and daily functioning. Because that is indeed the goal. We are talking about COVID-19 which disrupts people’s ability to function in their daily lives.
A video game is also scalable. It is something that can be given to many people. We need things we can bring out in the community. Even if it is a small subgroup of people who had COVID-19, the large number of people who had COVID-19 means that we need effective interventions that can be widely disseminated. We will not have the workforce to have individual cognitive intervention for all people who were ill.