TGen Launches MindCrowd 2.0

Pictured: Matt Huentelma, Ph.D.

MindCrowd, a unique online research project by the Translational Genomics Research Institute aimed at finding the factors that affect the brain’s functioning as we age, has added new tests and smartphone access in its next push toward its goal of one million participants.

To help drive participation, an anonymous donor has pledged $1 to TGen, part of City of Hope, for each test taken this year.

When MindCrowd launched in 2013, participants age 18 and up accessed the free online memory and attention test on their computers, where they could learn more about their cognitive performance and compare their results to others like them.

Led by TGen Professor of Neurogenomics Matt Huentelman Ph.D., the MindCrowd research team has already used data collected from nearly 300,000 participants to learn more about how health, medical and lifestyle factors affect cognition throughout the lifespan.

MindCrowd 2.0 now includes eight new “brain game” tests and the ability to participate on the main site using a smartphone. The project’s expansion should help researchers reach previously understudied groups of people and explore the effects of aging on more aspects of the brain.

“Not many studies examine the entire adult aging spectrum in one study like we do,” said Huentelman, “but part of our motivation is to improve the diversity, equity and the inclusivity in MindCrowd. Additionally, building on the success of the prior version of MindCrowd, we desired to expand the scope of the brain games to better characterize each participant’s brain.”

The updates to MindCrowd were made possible by a five-year, $60 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for the Precision Aging Network, led by researchers at the University of Arizona.

To learn more and take the 10-minute online quiz, visit mindcrowd.org.