SAN FRANCISCO — BrainHQ brain training is now being used by SWAT teams, police departments, sheriff’s offices and other first responders across the world to help thousands of public safety personnel make faster and better split-second decisions. The National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA) began offering brain training four years ago. At this year’s annual gathering of SWAT teams, the NTOA presented BrainHQ with the Spirit of NTOA Award — given annually to an individual or organization for “outstanding partnership, visionary leadership, and an enduring commitment to enhancing officer performance, and saving lives.”
“We are honored and humbled by this recognition,” said Dr. Henry Mahncke, a leading researcher in brain plasticity and the CEO of Posit Science, which makes BrainHQ. “We were first approached by the NTOA five years ago about how brain training might contribute to peak performance and better split-second decision-making.”
“When we first heard from NTOA,” Dr. Mahncke continued, “I assumed the call was prompted by a “Shoot/Don’t Shoot” study in law enforcement that was published in The American Journal of Psychology. But I learned from NTOA Executive Director Thor Eells that he’d heard about our work with special forces — using BrainHQ for training in making the right split-second decisions in high-stakes situations. It also helped that Steve Mescan, an NTOA board member and regular BrainHQ user, understood firsthand the demands placed on the tactical professional.”
In the Shoot/Don’t Shoot study, independent researchers randomized experienced officers into BrainHQ training designed to improve inhibition and split-second decisions and a control group who trained on other exercises (not targeting those skills). The researchers found a small amount of the right BrainHQ training (less than 6 hours) significantly improved performance in responding appropriately to threat versus non-threat situations. In a live-fire shooting range test, with targets popping up and down, officers were to shoot targets holding guns and to withhold fire from the same targets holding a cell phone. Researchers reported a 29 percent improvement in overall accuracy (shooting the armed adversary and withholding fire from the person holding a cell phone), as well as a 60% improvement in the more common (and fatal) error of failing to withhold fire from the non-threat.
In two recent videos, Eells describes integrating BrainHQ exercises into first responder training and officers discuss the impact of the training.
Steve Mescan, who served on the NTOA Board and now leads its training programs, first learned about BrainHQ from special operations operators he noticed using the BrainHQ app.
“So, I tried it,” Mescan said. “There are some similarities in disciplines when it comes to decision-making.” He thought BrainHQ might enhance his ability to make “sound decisions, good quick decisions, very critical decisions that could result in life or death,” adding he really noticed his improvements after co-workers commented.
“Having the mind as trained and ready as everything else provides for true resiliency,” Mescan added, noting that the pressures of SWAT work over a career have a very real impact on mental and physical health.
More than a hundred studies of BrainHQ have shown significant positive results in aging and across numerous mental health measures, such as depressive symptoms, anxiety, stress, and fatigue.
BrainHQ was built by a global team led by Dr. Mike Merzenich, the Kavli Laureate in Neuroscience (for his discovery that the brain is “plastic” — capable of chemical, physical, and functional change at any age). After harnessing plasticity in his co-invention of the cochlear implant to restore hearing to people with deafness, Merzenich proposed what is now known as “digital therapeutics”— using software to rewire the brain to address well-known decrements from aging in processing speed, sensory processing accuracy, and brain chemical production. BrainHQ was invented with a goal of slowing and reversing cognitive aging and went on to be applied to brain injuries, mental illnesses, and neurodegenerative diseases. Merzenich credits football legend Tom Brady with teaching him that those exercises could also make a great brain even better.
“Our work in aging, mental illnesses, brain injuries, and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as our work with the military on resilience and recovery and in peak performance, all became relevant to our work with NTOA on improving the training, abilities, mental health, and resilience of officers, as well as their ability to enjoy a well-earned retirement,” added Mahncke. “I’ll be addressing all of those topics in my sessions with NTOA members at the Crisis Negotiations and Tactics conference this week in Phoenix.”
BrainHQ has shown benefits in more than 300 studies. Such benefits include gains in cognition (attention, speed, memory, decision-making), in quality of life (depressive symptoms, confidence and control, health-related quality of life), and in real-world activities (health outcomes, balance, driving, workplace activities). BrainHQ is used by leading health plans, leading medical centers, clinics, and communities, and by elite athletes, the military, and other organizations focused on peak performance. Consumers can try a BrainHQ exercise for free daily at brainhq.com. First responders can learn more on the NTOA website.