Jon Stojan
Credit: Pexels
Caregiving is often considered a thankless job. It’s emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausting, with so many caregivers under pressure to balance their own health with that of the people they care for. Many risk burnout, particularly when caring for patients who require more intensive care.
Anjani Chakrala, a neuroscientist, used her expertise to research the relationship between mental workload, burnout, and cognitive performance, which many caregivers are adversely affected by. To help understand how these affect the brain, Chakrala helped develop the Thinkie System: a wearable device that uses fNIRS to measure near-infrared light as it passes through the brain, thereby detecting changes in oxygen levels within hemoglobin.
The measurements Thinkie analyzes reveal how active the brain is, which can indicate the level of brain engagement. By using the Thinkie System, Chakrala and her team believe they can help caretakers avoid cognitive burnout by examining their brain states.
How Thinkie Provides Cognitive Health Training
The Thinkie app tracks the intensity of brain activity by measuring blood oxygen levels non-invasively via a headpiece worn on the forehead. It then sends that real-time feedback data to a smartphone application, which displays focus and mental effort. Using this data, Thinkie shows users how to engage their brains through games integrated directly into the app. “When we measure blood flow to the prefrontal cortex, we’re able to see how the brain engages during decision-making and how that changes over time,” says Chakrala. “For caregivers, those metrics can help flag early signs of mental fatigue before burnout takes hold.”
Thinkie offers 19 games across 6 categories of cognitive functions, which lets users select the cognitive training that best stimulates their brain. While playing, the difficulty of the games changes based on brain activity, allowing one to track changes in cognitive function over time. A user only needs to complete Thinkie Sessions 3 to 4 times a week, each lasting 10-15 minutes, to meet their training goals.
What the Research Shows
A 2021 study conducted by Tohoku University and the Université de Lorraine investigated the effects of cognitive training with neurofeedback on young people. Its findings revealed that CT-NF (cognitive training with neurofeedback) leads to greater improvements in working memory, processing speed, and attention, which are associated with prefrontal cortex activity.
Thinkie’s technology, developed over nearly 30 years and supported through collaborations like its AARP collaboration, adapts advanced neuroscience into a safe, accessible product that people of all ages can use to monitor their progress and improve cognitive acuity, which is especially important for caretakers who run the risk of mental decline as a result of burnout.
Recent data from AARP highlights how urgent this issue is: over one in three caregivers report experiencing emotional exhaustion or burnout symptoms. Recognizing this widespread strain, Thinkie collaborated with AARP to make its cognitive health tools more accessible to caregivers, giving them measurable insights into their own well-being.
Using the Thinkie System to Catch Burnout Early
By using Thinkie, caretakers can gauge when mental fatigue and stress will begin to affect their decision-making, allowing them to take corrective steps early.
While the Thinkie System’s goal is ultimately to help people with cognitive training, learning to navigate stress and avoid burnout is essential for caretakers, who often face unprecedented levels of stress and responsibility. With the Thinkie System, caretakers can track progress and prevent burnout by reshaping their brain function. For caregivers who are willing to invest 10-15 minutes a few times a week, Thinkie provides the information and training needed to protect their most important resource: their own cognitive well-being.