A study performed by Dr. Estate Sokhadze at the University of Louisville (now at the Duke University School of Medicine) showed all of these positive changes from only five hours of training with the Peak BrainHappiness Trainer. A follow-up survey taken after the study showed the subjects had effortlessly remained just as happy for 4 months. This led to the hypothesis that the results of this study may also indicate that this training can improve long term health.
There were two goals for this study, which was published in Adolescent Psychiatry. One aim was to compare the results of potential substance abusers (who had been in legal trouble for substance use but did not meet the criteria for substance abuse used by psychiatrists) with normal controls (university staff and students). It turned out that the results from the five potential substance abusers were no different from the 6 normal controls. The results from both groups were combined and used to measure the effects of 12 sessions of the Neureka! and Focus training in the Peak BrainHappiness Trainer, the second goal.
There were very significant improvements in attention after 12 sessions of training, measured by the IVA+ test. Most notable were improvements after training in the Attention Quotient (t=3.46, p=0.006), Sustained Auditory Attention Quotient (t=3.19, p=0.01), Sustained Visual Attention Quotient (t=3.13, p=0.01), and Auditory Reaction Time (t=2.41, p=0.04). These improvements were actually substantially larger than our studies using the Focus and Alertness training protocol. This is probably due to to the experiential finding that increased Neureka! levels are related to enhancing the intensity of wide-screen attention–part of our natural response to discovering something new–so Neureka! training should improve this ability.
More specifically, the largest increase was in memory (13%), significant at the p < .05 level. There were two improvements–Attention/Mental Control and Reasoning–that were almost significant. The other two categories, Spatial Processing and Reaction Time, were not improved at all. This indicates a very selective improvement in brain function, particularly centered around memory accuracy. It is consistent with the hypotheses we made several years ago when we wrote the Neureka! manual.
This is the fourth study on Neureka! and happiness, all confirming our original ideas. You can find information on the first study by Dr. Beverly Rubik here, and the other two studies in this article.