NeuroTracker

The core NeuroTracker task can be understood in 60 seconds, but because it adapts rapidly, each user is challenged at their attentional thresholds throughout each 6-min session.

This task has now been validated in 120+ published studies: https://www.neurotrackerx.com/science

Can perceptual-cognitive training help older adults interpret human movement more effectively?

This study tested that question using NeuroTracker training and a biological motion perception task.

Biological motion perception is the ability to read human movement from motion cues — for example, identifying the direction someone is walking from the movement pattern of body joints.

This matters because everyday environments are full of moving people: crowds, sidewalks, traffic crossings, sports settings, and shared public spaces.

In this study, healthy older adults completed 5 weeks of NeuroTracker training.

Researchers then tested their ability to identify the walking direction of a life-size point-light human walker at different virtual distances.

The key finding was at 4 meters. At this near, socially relevant distance, the NeuroTracker-trained group showed stronger biological motion perception than both control groups.

The trained group showed stronger performance on a separate human-motion perception task, while the control groups did not show comparable transfer.

More specifically the training appeared to eliminate perceptual processing deficits associated with healthy aging.

The study suggests that NeuroTracker training may help improve how healthy older adults process socially relevant dynamic scenes, especially at near distances where age-related biological motion deficits have been observed.

The research provides some interesting evidence of transfer from perceptual-cognitive training to a meaningful human movement perception task.

Study: “Perceptual-Cognitive Training Improves Biological Motion Perception: Evidence for Transferability of Training in Healthy Aging.”

https://www.neurotrackerx.com/science/perceptual-cognitive-training-improves-biological-motion-perception-evidence-for-transferability-of-training-in-healthy-aging

Not all NeuroTracker assessment conditions reveal the same information.

This study examined 3D multiple object tracking performance across different cognitive loads by varying the number of targets participants had to track: 1, 2, 3, or 4 targets among 8 moving objects.

As expected, tracking speed decreased as target load increased.
But the more interesting finding was that higher-load performance was more informative.

Key findings:
- Tracking more targets produced a clear load-response pattern
- High-load MOT performance predicted fluid reasoning ability
- The 4-target condition was the strongest predictor
- Lower-load tracking was less stimulating for fluid reasoning

NeuroTracker performance was related to fluid reasoning, with high target conditions reflecting overlapping attention-resource demands.

The findings suggest that lower-load conditions may be useful for accessibility or specific populations, while higher-load conditions may better characterize capacity limits and individual differences in attentional resources.

This makes target-load selection an important consideration when designing NeuroTracker assessments for different populations and applied goals.

Study: “The Characterization of Attention Resource Capacity and Its Relationship With Fluid Reasoning Intelligence: A Multiple Object Tracking Study.”

https://lnkd.in/e5t7QsYm

New Book Review - HealthSpan: Redefined

HealthSpan: Redefined, by Dr. Sean Fletch, offers a clear and well-needed framework for thinking about long-term health and the ability to meet life’s demands over time.

Read the review here: www.neurotrackerx.com/post/new-book-review-healthspan

Can cognitive training transfer to attention and executive function in healthy older adults?

This study explored that question using NeuroTracker training and the Stroop task.

Forty-six healthy older adults, aged 63–87, were assigned to either a NeuroTracker training group or a no-training control group.

The NeuroTracker group completed 21 sessions over 7 weeks. Before and after the intervention, participants completed Stroop-based tests measuring selective attention, psychomotor speed, and cognitive flexibility.

Key findings:

- Cognitive flexibility improved by 33.76%

- Psychomotor speed + cognitive flexibility improved by 10.20%

- Psychomotor speed + selective attention improved by 6.24%

- The control group showed no significant change

The findings suggest that NeuroTracker training may influence broader cognitive functions involved in attention control, processing speed, and mental flexibility.

For healthy aging, these functions matter because they support everyday activities that require adapting to changing information — from driving and navigation to multitasking and maintaining independence.

Study: “3-Dimensional Multiple Object Tracking Training Can Enhance Selective Attention, Psychomotor Speed, and Cognitive Flexibility in Healthy Older Adults.”

https://www.neurotrackerx.com/science/3-dimensional-multiple-object-tracking-training-can-enhance-selective-attention-psychomotor-speed-and-cognitive-flexibility-in-healthy-older-adults

In sport, the decisive moment rarely begins with movement.

It begins earlier — with perception.

Before an athlete moves, the brain is already detecting cues, filtering distractions, distributing attention, timing decisions, and preparing the right response. This is the perception-to-action loop.

In real-world performance, small differences in this loop can shape how quickly an athlete reads the play, adapts to changing information, selects the right option, and executes under speed.

The physical action is what we see. But the quality of that action is often determined by the perceptual-cognitive processing that happens just before it.

This is where NeuroTracker fits naturally - as a way to challenge and train the underlying attention, tracking, decision timing, and response-control demands that support high-performance ex*****on.

This NeuroTracker study helped establish a key principle in perceptual-cognitive training: progressive overload can apply to cognition, as well as physical training.

Spanish Olympic athletes from water polo, taekwondo, and tennis completed 26 NeuroTracker sessions across three phases:

- seated training

- standing training

- motor-integrated training involving balance or sport-relevant movement

The most important finding was not just that scores improved.

When task complexity increased, performance briefly dipped — then recovered quickly as athletes adapted to the new dual-task demand.

The findings corroborate other NeuroTracker research, that this type of training can be used progressively:

- first building core perceptual-cognitive capacity

- then layer on motor demands

- maintain overall learning progression

The study reported statistically significant improvements from this dual-task training across several visual and attentional measures:

- static visual acuity

- stereopsis

- contrast sensitivity

- saccadic eye movements

- selective focused attention.

Athlete and coach ratings also improved across visual concentration, perceptual speed, and peripheral vision.

This was a quasi-experimental study and did not have a control group. However, it helped lay the foundation for NeuroTracker dual-task research.

Study: “Perceptual-Cognitive Training with the Neurotracker 3D-MOT to Improve Performance in Three Different Sports.”

https://www.neurotrackerx.com/science/perceptual-cognitive-training-with-the-neurotracker-3d-mot-to-improve-performance-in-three-different-sports

What separates professional athletes from other high performers?

This landmark Nature Scientific Reports study tested whether elite sport expertise is reflected in NeuroTracker performance - a neutral perceptual-cognitive task with no sport-specific cues.

A total of 308 participants completed repeated NeuroTracker 3D-MOT sessions:

- 102 professional athletes from the EPL, NHL, and French Top 14 rugby

- 173 elite amateur athletes from NCAA and Olympic training environments

- 33 non-athlete university students

The key finding was not just that professional athletes performed better.

Professional athletes showed the fastest learning curves, reaching higher NeuroTracker speed thresholds and improving more rapidly across sessions than both elite amateurs and non-athletes.

Elite amateurs also separated from non-athletes over time, suggesting that the ability to learn complex dynamic visual scenes may scale with sport performance level.

This is important because the task did not rely on reading a soccer play, reacting to a hockey sequence, or recognizing sport-specific patterns.

Instead, it tested fundamental perceptual-cognitive abilities: distributed attention, dynamic visual tracking, sustained focus, and rapid adaptation to unpredictable motion.

The study does not show whether these abilities are developed through years of elite sport, reflect pre-existing talent, or both. But it provides a powerful signal that world-class athletes may differ not only in physical ability or sport-specific knowledge, but in how quickly they learn to process complex dynamic information.

Study: “Professional Athletes Have Extraordinary Skills for Rapidly Learning Complex and Neutral Dynamic Visual Scenes.”

https://www.neurotrackerx.com/science/professional-athletes-have-extraordinary-skills-for-rapidly-learning-complex-and-neutral-dynamic-visual-scenes

How does cognitive performance behave during high-intensity intermittent exercise?

This pilot study tested NeuroTracker performance in children, young adults, and older adults during an interval treadmill protocol.

Participants completed NeuroTracker while exercising through repeated high-intensity intervals: 30 seconds at 90% VO₂max, separated by active recovery periods.

Key findings:

- Young adults showed the highest absolute NeuroTracker scores

- NeuroTracker performance increased over exercise time across the protocol

- Young adults showed the clearest absolute progression during exercise

- Older adults showed meaningful progression from their own baseline

These findings are interesting because they place cognitive performance in a physical-load context.

In sport, driving, military, and daily movement environments, cognition rarely happens at rest. People often need to track dynamic information while the body is already under physical demand.

The study was exploratory with small groups, but it provides a useful research signal: NeuroTracker can capture age-related performance differences under intermittent physical load.

Study: “Effect of Intermittent Exercise on Performance in 3D Multiple Objects Tracking in Children, Young and Older Adults — A Pilot Study.”

https://www.neurotrackerx.com/science/effect-of-intermittent-exercise-on-performance-in-3d-multiple-objects-tracking-in-children-young-and-older-adults--a-pilot-study

A single cognitive score can be useful.

But sometimes the more revealing signal is the shape of the learning curve.

This study examined NeuroTracker performance trajectories in 101 children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental profiles involving attention, learning, and intellectual-development differences.

Rather than focusing only on baseline performance, researchers analyzed how NeuroTracker scores changed across repeated sessions using latent growth curve modeling.

Key findings:

- Youth with intellectual developmental disorder showed lower baseline performance and slower initial learning

- Youth with ADHD and specific learning disorder showed reduced longer-term learning rates

This research provides some insights for understanding attention and learning profiles, highlighting how performance can adapt differently over time.

Study: “Distinctive Patterns of Multiple Object-Tracking Performance Trajectories in Youth With Deficits in Attention, Learning, and Intelligence.”

https://www.neurotrackerx.com/science/distinctive-patterns-of-multiple-object-tracking-performance-trajectories-in-youth-with-deficits-in-attention-learning-and-intelligence