50 million are currently living with dementia, a figure which is set to increase substantially as worldwide populations age and people live longer. Dementia differs from normal aging in that our cognitive functions, or how we think and remember things about ourselves and others, begin to breakdown. We have some theories as to why this happens and in some specific cases what might prevent it but we simply don't know enough to help the millions of people who suffer from dementia on a daily basis. However, all is not lost, what we do know is that that there may be early warning signs which if detected, could allow us to put treatments in place years before disease onset. It's too early to say with certainty but we hope that once we can detect the disease early, we can stop it from progressing completely.

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Mental health conditions affect 1 in 4 people around the world. Through decades of research, we have identified important risk factors for mental health like early stress or neglect, and have built an enormous body of knowledge regarding cognitive and brain changes that go hand in hand with mental illness. This research has typically taken a bird’s eye view - studying groups of people and looking for associations with diagnostic categories like depression. Unfortunately, it has proven difficult to use these insights to make predictions about individuals.

 

At Neureka, we want to change that. We want to conduct the largest and most detailed study of YOU that has ever been attempted. By playing games and telling us how you feel, day by day, we aim to figure out how mental health issues evolve over time. We want to know why some people are more resilient than others, how emotions like mood, irritability and motivation interact with one another and the environment and how they can kick-start vicious cycles that are difficult to break free from.