July 20, 2009
BY BRAD SPIRRISON chicagotechmatters@gmail.com

While popular exercise-focused video games like those played on Nintendo’s Wii Fitness appear to have some health benefits, brain games designed to enhance mental fitness are striving for clinical and commercial acceptance.

“We are learning that people can push out the natural effects of aging by playing cognitive games,” says Jim Hanekamp, founder of Glenview-based My Fit Brain.

Hanekamp, 53, started the company last year after his mother began to show early signs of Alzheimer’s. His research showed that while brain exercises could do little to reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s, they could positively impact neural growth earlier in life. This, in theory, could delay memory loss and other effects of brain aging.

The former corporate technology director has invested about $70,000 and months of salary-free time to develop a suite of brain training games found at www.myfitbrain.com. Games with titles like “Pair Em Up” and “CodeBreaker” test memory and logic function, and increase in difficulty based on the cognitive capacity of the user.

While Nintendo and neuroscience specialist Lumosity market paid and subscription-based games, everything on My Fit Brain is free to the user. Hanekamp, who has recruited 1,200 registered users and thousands more visitors to the site, hopes eventually to make money from advertisers.

“We have a new, patent-pending way to incorporate advertising within the game itself,” he said.

Although Hanekamp has had a tough go landing advertisers and investors — he was told he needs between 10,000 and 100,000 registered users to be a viable marketing channel — the company has contained costs by outsourcing its development to India and hosting the site on Amazon’s cloud computing service.

My Fit Brain is marketed largely via word-of-mouth, fueled by an instructive and regularly updated blog on the site that focuses on cognitive fitness issues.

Chicago Sun-Times article by Brad Spirrison