Speaker

Presentation Info

Title

Beyond the Hype: AI, Digital Twins, and XR Games Redefining Brain Fitness

Summary

Serious games in healthcare are no longer experimental, they're redefining how we engage, motivate, and measure recovery. Yet, for people rebuilding their lives after neurological injury, the next step goes beyond playing to heal— it's about achieving brain fitness: adaptive, personalized, and emotionally intelligent experiences that help individuals regain and sustain mental vitality, independence, and confidence. This talk presents how BrainBoostXR unites AI-driven digital twins, cognitive biomarkers, and gamified virtual reality (VR) experiences supported by an empathic AI companion to create a new standard in post–Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) rehabilitation. Traditional rehabilitation often feels detached from life— repetitive, difficult to access, and emotionally isolating. Many individuals face long travel times, limited continuity of care, and exercises that fail to motivate. BrainBoostXR transforms evidence-based cognitive paradigms into immersive, rewarding game experiences that make brain training feel natural, relevant, and enjoyable. At the foundation is an AI-driven digital twin— a continuously evolving model that reflects each user's unique cognitive profile and progression. By analyzing in-game behaviors such as accuracy, response times, attention shifts, and problem-solving patterns, BrainBoostXR extracts cognitive biomarkers as objective measures of mental performance and adaptation. These biomarkers guide Dynamic Difficulty Progression, enabling the system to automatically adjust each challenge to match the user's optimal level of engagement and learning. Gamification is central to this process. Players earn rewards, unlock achievements, and experience tangible progress as they master interactive challenges modeled on real-life thinking demands—planning, multitasking, and flexible decision-making. These features transform recovery into a dynamic feedback loop of personalization and motivation, turning sustained practice into genuine play. VR provides the medium for this transformation. Within lifelike, fully interactive worlds, users can safely practice cognitive skills essential for everyday living, e.g., organizing, focusing, and adapting under pressure. This allows them to build real-world confidence while eliminating risk or fear of failure, creating a psychologically safe environment where effort and experimentation are rewarded. Complementing this system is an AI-powered companion— a socially responsive agent that offers real-time empathy, guidance, and feedback. For those who often feel isolated after brain injury, this companion reintroduces emotional connection and social presence, helping restore dignity and connection alongside measurable cognitive progress. This talk will: · Demonstrate how digital twins and biomarkers redefine adaptive brain fitness through play · Show how gamified VR transforms motivation and adherence into measurable recovery · Explore how emotional intelligence and social connection sustain engagement and dignity BrainBoostXR exemplifies how immersive XR and AI can move "beyond the hype" by bridging neuroscience, brain fitness, affective computing, and game design to restore not only cognition, but confidence, connection, joy, and dignity.

Keynote

Presentation

GFHEU Year

2026