I’ve been diagnosed with MCI, Mild Cognitive Empowerment, and through a program at Emory called Cognitive Empowerment Program which is like no other program for MCI in the nation, I was introduced to Brain HQ. Apparently Emory did a study and determined that this was an effective program and could be beneficial for those with MCI. The program starts out slow and then picks up speed. One looks at two different cars and a highway sign. These items are flashed on the screen and then you select which car and the location of the sign. Sound easy, nope, not for someone with MCI. One is being challenged with peripheral vision, short term memory going to long term memory. There are so many other different exercises which are so very challenging to memory. Items such as several sea birds, one of which has a slightly different wing and after seeing all the birds briefly and then attempt to remember the location of that bird which was among all the others.. Very tough to do. It’s taken me a while typing this as I struggle to find the right words. I still have very limited driving privileges and I’ve noticed I’m more aware of objects in my peripheral vision. Brain HQ in my opinion helps me to be more aware of my surroundings but as good as the program is, it will never cure MCI but it will help me to be more aware which hopefully will help me to more independent.

I’ve been using this for a while in the mornings to help with my cognitive flexibility, however I have a recommendation to make for the programmers for the Face 2 Face game: there’s really no reason every person we “meet” should be a white man. A) There are simply more people in the world than that. B) I know many people with racial bias actively struggle with discerning between multiple Black individuals, multiple Asian individuals, etc. This type of game has the potential with helping people with their subconscious bias by forcing them to recognize people and remember things about them, but instead it is only used to help reinforce that white men are the standard. C) Most of the people I interact with are not white men (I am very much not alone in this experience) and this is simply not as helpful of a training by limiting the subject pool in this way. D) It’s also just kind of unpleasant to feel forgotten and unrepresented by the app developers. It feels as though women and people who are not men of any race, and men who are not white were not on your mind at all when generating this program. That realization definitely soured my otherwise favorable experience. If y’all get the chance to rework that section I think it could be beneficial, both in terms of inclusion and in practice for collective brain development and societal improvement.

… I paid for a full year as a neurologist suggested it, had it one year before, but will try hard after 2023 to find something else. The exercises are challenging and I really like that BUT it is one of the most unintuitive apps I’ve ever run across! And that has not changed in 3 years though many people have the same comments in these reviews! None of how all the options work, or why you’d choose one over another, is explained clearly. The FAQs say the stars indicate how well you’re doing compared to others. But what others? There is no data provided on how many “others” are currently training using the app! And who are the others? Everyone? Or just those in my age range (which IS the comparison to make). How does it change the Virtual Trainer exercises steered to you if you change your “Focus” selection?- not explained! At the beginning of each game, the slider across the top moves around, numbers and stats display, none of which is explained. Too many examples all throughout the app like this to even take time here to mention. No excuse for this.

If you have version 6 of brain HQ I do not recommend upgrading to version 7. I was a paid subscriber and unfortunately I upgraded my version of the Brain HQ app via the app store for their so called bug fixes. I am now with version 7, unable to downgrade, and unable to access the original better versions of Audiory Ace, Card Shark and other games. It’s been now over a month I’ve submitted multiple tickets to the team and never have been given a response as to how to fix this. I’ve also noticed that when you go to select a game the developers now added a completely useless / unproductive 2 to 3 second animation. I’ve also noticed that after you complete a level the developers added a significantly longer animation that shows your result. This all causes more time on the app with less levels being played. I’ve also noticed that when setting a weekly goal the new maximum is 3 times lower than then previous. So I am assuming the developers don’t want you to have high goals. The developers have also gotten rid of the Brain HQ widget that helps to track your progress. This app is now becoming annoying frustrating and unproductive and defeating its own purpose. Version 6 of Brain HQ was a good app with no bugs. Now version 7 is behaving like a -1 star app. Since these issues haven't gotten resolved I’ve received a refund for the rest of my subscription but would rather just have version 6 back.