Cecilia Liao

Could gamification be used to beat depression?

Stanford University has recently conducted a study that asked the subjects, who are highly susceptible to depression, to think of “happy thoughts” while watching their own brain activity recorded in real-time fMRI. The subjects - and the researchers - were pleasantly surprised that they were able to change their brain activity level simply by conjuring up happy thoughts into their minds.

Days later, when the subjects returned for further testing, the researchers have found that the subjects’ bodies reacted less to stress, highlighting the potential of adaptive strategy to cope with negative feelings via gamification.

While it’s early days, maybe one possible in-home therapy to depression is to wear headbands or bracelets when a negative episode is occurring, which encourage the patients to change their brain activity levels by thinking about something else and actually see their progress in real time.

(Source: futurity.org)