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3D vision (binocular stereo) develops during childhood and tends to reduce after 65 years of age. This study aimed to investigate whether these effects are significant when processing complex and dynamic motion.

Three groups of 20 subjects were recruited: children (7–12 years old), adults (18–40 years old) and older adults (≥65 years old). Each person completed 4 NeuroTracker sessions, 2 in 2D (no binocular stereo) and 2 in 3D (with binocular stereo).

As typical, adults achieved significantly higher NeuroTracker scores than children or elderly. They also gained a significantly larger advantage when performing NeuroTracker in 3D. In turn, children showed more advantage with 3D than elderly. This suggests that older populations have reduced ability to process complex and dynamic motion using stereoscopic processing. This study reveals that comparison between scores with and without stereoscopic effect, allows direct evaluation of the stereopsis advantage when performing NeuroTracker.

To evaluate the effectiveness and transfer of an NeuroTracker training on visual and executive functions in youth elite soccer players.

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29 elite youth soccer players were recruited and divided into training and control groups. Visual and executive functions were analyzed in a pre–post test design with both groups doing regular soccer training, and the trained group also completing 10 weeks of NeuroTracker training twice a week. Transfer assessments included tests with the Senaptec Sensory Station, the Trail Making Test, and the Design Fluency test.

Large differences in NeuroTracker initial baselines were found both between the groups, and within the groups. For the trained group, initial baselines were strongly correlated with improvement rates. Assessments show gains for both groups in working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibition, metacognition, MOT, attention window and processing speed, but only measures inhibition, visual clarity showed advantages specific to the trained group. The researchers recommended studies with a dual-task training intervention and larger number of participants may be needed to reveal training effects for this population.

This study measured the capacity of older participants to improve their tracking speed thresholds (NeuroTracker), to investigate if age related cognitive decline can be reversed with a training intervention known to be directly relevant to the effects of healthy aging.

20 healthy younger adults (mean age 24 years old) and 20 healthy older adults (mean age 67 years old) performed 15 NeuroTracker training sessions distributed over 5 weeks.

Both groups obtained benefit from training with a similar rate of progression. Though the older group started off at a significantly lower level than the younger group, they obtained speed thresholds that were similar to those of untrained younger adults by the end of the training program. Furthermore, towards the end of the training program the rate of learning appeared to have slowed for the younger group, yet the older group still showed a strong learning curve, suggesting greater improvements with continued training. In conclusion, although healthy older people show a significant age-related deficit in the NeuroTracker task, they respond strongly to training effects and demonstrate an ability to fully reverse age-related functional decline with a short intervention of NeuroTracker training.

This was a pilot study with a selection of elementary school children based on test measures showing significant attention problems and impulse control, but not clinically diagnosed as ADHD. The purpose of this pilot study was to see if NeuroTracker has the potential be an efficacious short-term intervention for young students with severe attention impairments, based on changes in standardised neuropsychological assessments.

A test and control group of 5 Elementary school students each were included in the study, selected based on severely impaired rating on the IVA+PlusTM Continuous Performance Test. Both groups produced NeuroTracker initial baselines with statistically insignificant differences. The test group completed 21 five-minute NeuroTracker training sessions distributed over 3.5 weeks, the control group did no training. Both groups were then retested on the neuropsychological assessments.

The Test Group improved NeuroTracker speed thresholds by an average of 61% over the course of the training. The control group showed negligible difference in pre-post neuropsychological assessments scores, whereas the trained group showed variable but significant improvements across a range of visual and auditory measures. Gains were most pronounced in Prudence, Consistency and Focus in both visual and auditory domains, matching previous findings, and suggesting cross-modal performance transfer.In general the improvement ratios suggested that a short-term NeuroTracker training intervention can improve severe attention deficits towards moderate attention deficits in this population, with potential to positively impact learning outcomes at a young age.

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To investigate how attentionally based performance and learning is affected when audio stimuli is present in athletic populations.

Twenty USPORT level football athletes (mean age = 20.5yrs) completed in 18 sessions of NeuroTracker Training. Ten athletes completed the training in a dark room with no external noise (had noise cancelling headphones). The other ten athletes completed the training in the same room but were exposed to a consistent simulated crowd noise.

No significant differences in NeuroTracker initial baselines were found between the two groups were found. However, after the 18 training sessions, the mean NeuroTracker score for the noise group was 2.07 (SD = 0.24). In contrast the no noise group averaged significantly slower at 1.77 (SD = 0.32). Although studies show that noise can inhibit attentional processing, this study indicates that presence of the simulated crowd noise may enhance the ecological validity of NeuroTracker training for athlete populations.

To examine the effects of different rehydration strategies on cognitive performance under the effects of physical fatigue.

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12 male endurance-trained runners (av. age: 23. years) were tasked with running on a treadmill at 70% of their predetermined VO2max for 1 h followed by running at 90% of VO2max until exhaustion on four separate days. On each day different hydration modalities were given (no hydration, electrolyte drink, electrolyte drink with a low dose of Sustamine, electrolyte drink with a high dose of Sustamine), drinking 250 mL every 15 min. Before and after each hour run, cognitive function (NeuroTracker) and reaction tests were administered.

Results showed that physical reaction time was faster for the low dose trial than the high dose trial. Analysis of lower body quickness indicates that performance in both the low and high dose trials were likely improved in comparison to the no hydration trial. NeuroTracker results indicated a possible greater performance for dehydration and low dose compared to only the electrolyte drink, while there was a likely greater performance in multiple object tracking for the high dose trial compared to consumption of the electrolyte drink only.

To investigate if an unsupervised remote NeuroTracker training intervention could subjectively improve performance outcomes with elite athletes across a range of different sports.

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54 elite athletes from boxing, wrestling, women’s handball, women’s soccer, orienteering, biathlon, alpine skiing, sled hockey, badminton and table tennis completed at least four NeuroTracker sessions per week over a 5 week period. The athletes trained independently from the researchers, using personal NeuroTracker accounts. They were also not given any instructions on the training, to avoid potential biases. All the athletes completed pre and post Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaires (7 point Likert scale), to self-assess their current performance status.

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Almost all the participants completed at least the minimum of 4 NeuroTracker sessions per week, indicating a high compliance. On average the athletes experienced an improvement in normalized NeuroTracker speed thresholds of 39% by the end of the 5 weeks. The results of Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaires showed an improvement from a rating of 18.9, to 19.2.

Attention and feedback are known to play critical roles in learning. This preliminary study sought to assess the benefits of instant feedback within NeuroTracker task performance.

38 young adults (mean 23yrs old) completed 4 NeuroTracker sessions over two days. 19 participants were assisted with feedback on test performance throughout the sessions, and 19 were given no feedback. Pre and post training assessments were completed using the Continuous Performance Test II to measure cognitive function.

The participants assisted with feedback demonstrated greater improvement in NeuroTracker scores over the 4 sessions. The feedback group also demonstrated better transferability effects to the CPT-II task, reflected by a significantly decreased pre/post mean error rate. The results indicate that feedback has a positive effect on performance and may be an important aspect of transfer to cognitive functions.

To determine whether baseline NeuroTracker performance predicts overall season sport performance in university varsity athletes.

University varsity athletes completed baseline NeuroTracker assessments prior to their competitive season. Objective season performance statistics were collected and analyzed to evaluate potential associations between baseline perceptual-cognitive tracking ability and in-season performance outcomes.

No significant correlation was found between baseline NeuroTracker performance and overall season sport performance metrics. These findings suggest that baseline perceptual-cognitive tracking ability alone may not directly predict aggregate competitive outcomes, highlighting the multifactorial nature of sport performance.