Overview
Read full research articleThis novel study explores whether five-minute daily practices from Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Training (SMART™) — an online brain‑health training program combining strategic thinking exercises with simple daily habits — can improve mental well‑being in adults both with and without diagnosed mental illness. Over six months, participants who completed the program showed meaningful improvements in psychological distress, resilience, quality of life, and engagement in meaningful activities. Across all participants, improvements in thinking were linked to better mental health, suggesting that an accessible, online, strategy-based style of cognitive training can support emotional well‑being and mental health at scale for a wide range of adults and communities. Research findings confirm that strengthening the brain through accessible, online training can meaningfully improve mental health, even for individuals living with diagnosed mental illness, offering a significant step beyond traditional mental health approaches, which tend to focus on treating symptoms. In contrast, this research highlights a proactive, skills‑based approach that empowers people to build resilience, improve clarity of thinking, and enhance quality of life. Because this program is digital, it can reach people who may face obstacles to participating in effective mental health interventions, like those who lack access to therapy, live in rural areas, face stigma, or struggle with cost or scheduling barriers. In short, this work suggests that brain health training could become a scalable, population‑level tool for improving emotional well‑being and reducing the burden of mental health challenges.Figure 3. Changes in mental health outcomes and clarity by mental illness status from pre to post brain health training. For panel (A), higher scores represent greater symptoms of psychological distress and therefore indicate a less favorable outcome. For panels (B–E), higher scores represent more favorable outcomes.
