June 22, 2009

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) Posit Science, the leading provider of brain fitness software, today announced that it was issued patent number 7,540,615 by the US Patent & Trademark Office. Posit Science now owns or licenses 90 US and foreign patents covering inventions in the field of applied brain science.

Posit Science develops and distributes brain fitness software demonstrated to deliver significant benefits in double-blind, randomized controlled trials. Those benefits have been documented in more than thirty scholarly articles in leading medical and science journals. The company’s brain fitness exercises have been shown to significantly increase processing speed, improve memory and attention, and enhance quality of life.

“This 90th patent is quite a milestone,” said Jeff Zimman, Chairman of the company. “It underscores our ongoing commitment to invention and to the advance of the field of applied neuroplasticity. Most people would be amazed by the discoveries being made in our labs every month, and the rate of invention just keeps accelerating”

The company estimates that its patents now cover more than 2000 claims on inventions related to software and devices that change the brain’s physiology and functionality.

Patent number 7,540,615 addresses how to drive improvements in visual processing, including speed, memory and field of view, by dynamically adjusting elements of stimuli, such as speed of presentation or location, in response to each user’s unique progress through the software.

It is one of a growing portfolio of inventions related to visual processing that complements the company’s portfolios of inventions in other areas of cognitive processing. In addition to its issued patents, the company has scores of patents that are pending.

“I have 3 children and 3 grandchildren,” said Dr. Michael Merzenich, Chief Scientist of Posit Science. “Of course, all of them are beautiful and brilliant. But, inventions are a special kind of progeny because they can quickly change the world — and they never give you any sass.”

Dr. Merzenich is an inventor on more than 60 patents. He is a professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco, where he still maintains a research lab, and has been elected by his peers to both the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Merzenich is just one of the more than 50 scientists from around the world contributing to the development and testing of brain fitness programs at Posit Science.