Neuria: No more craving for sweets thanks to gaming app

Last year, CSS, in collaboration with the EPFL Innovation Park, awarded the Future Health Grant was launched. Its aim is to promote digital health solutions with financial support and the expertise of partners from research and industry. Neuria Digital therapeutics is one of the selected start-ups. The company has developed digital therapy software that is hidden in a video game.

thebroker wanted to know how a video game can be used to change food intake and spoke to Professor Dr. Lucas Spierer, neuroscientist and CEO of Neuria.

You have worked for many years as a professor in the neurology department of the medical faculty at the University of Freiburg. What prompted you to set up your own company?

The midlife crisis! Not quite so serious, it was the desire to make the results of our research available to the general public to give them more meaning. The path via a start-up company also allows us to pursue this goal and generate revenue to support our next scientific studies.

What solutions for prevention, diagnosis and treatment have you developed together with your employees?

Our technology makes it possible to measure and, above all, reduce “cravings”, i.e. the strong impulse to consume foods or other substances that we like (tobacco, alcohol), despite the harmful consequences that this consumption can have on our health. We are currently focusing on the consumption of unhealthy foods. Our approach is original because it does not require any effort. The people who take part in our interventions do not even notice that their food preferences change and that their consumption decreases as a result.

You have developed the video game “The Diner” for a healthier diet. How does it work?

It’s a typical arcade game, a reflex game where you have to react very quickly to images of food or hold back to react, according to certain rules. The control that players exert over their movements during the game will gradually change how much they like the target food. And as we consume less of what we like less of, consumption naturally changes. Presenting these tasks, in the form of a video game, only serves to make them engaging and entertaining for us, in the same way that sweetener in a cough syrup makes it easier to swallow.

Processes of behavioral change must be triggered. What exactly changes in the brain?

The repetitive actions required to win in our games lead to changes in the reward circuit buried deep in the brain. These regions determine what we like and want. This is our scientific discovery. In more than ten years of studies, we have discovered a “wiring” in the brain that connects the regions of movement control to those of reward. If you repeatedly activate the former according to certain rules, you can influence the latter.

Is the video game comparable to conventional diets?

No, our approach is not based on education or instructions on what to consume and what not to consume – no one can maintain that kind of self-control for long, which is why traditional diets fail so often. Our play triggers a kind of unconscious learning process that reduces the activity of the reward system in the brain and thus changes our preferences and consumption. The learning process takes about 15 hours of play and its effect lasts for more than six months. Our game acts like a “digital vaccine” that reduces cravings for the targeted food group.

You focus on reducing excessive consumer behavior and its harmful effects on health. Can you define this more precisely in percentage terms?

Our published scientific studies show that within two to three weeks of playing with our smartphone app, we reduce how much we like the target food by 20 percent and how much of it we consume by 20 percent.

What is the probability that an overweight person who eats chocolate every day will stop doing so after playing a video game?

She will continue to eat chocolate, but 20 percent less. This will have a positive effect on their health, as chocolate contains a lot of sugar and fat. This effect will occur without the person realizing it and without any effort at self-control.

You specialize in nutrition. Aren’t there other areas, such as more physical activity and sport, that Neuria could offer?

At the moment, we are only managing to reduce how much we want to eat and consume, and soon cigarettes and alcohol too. Encouraging people to be active is an area that we will expand in the future.

They say that 15 hours of video game time is enough to change a behavior. How long should you play every day?

Ideally, you should spread the total of 10-15 hours over about a month. That’s a bit of video game every day, but a video game that feels good. We’ve tested the game on children, adults and older people, and they all like it.

How long does the effect last, and do you have to play for another 15 hours afterwards?

The effect lasts for at least six months; it is beneficial to play for a few hours after this time to get the effect going again.

Your aim is to reduce the risk of overweight people in particular, who are prone to diabetes, gout, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease and strokes. What are the current results of your research?

As we are scientists first and foremost, we have waited until we are very sure of our results before offering our interventions to the public. If we succeed in reducing unhealthy consumption, especially of sugar, in a large catchment area of the population, the impact on health costs will be enormous.

How and where can interested people get access to video games?

In the very early stage of commercialization that we are currently in, we would like to partner with insurers who offer our innovative solution to their customers to promote their health through the prevention and treatment of obesity and diabetes and, of course, to reduce future insurance costs for the reimbursement of treatment costs. Offering our technology would also enable the insurer to strengthen its position as a leading provider of innovative and novel digital solutions for its policyholders.

Are the video games free of charge?

There are various options for the insurer and the customer. Since our software improves health and thus reduces insurers’ costs, we could imagine insurers offering it free of charge as added value for their customers or motivating their policyholders to participate in a program in return for a premium reduction. These aspects will be discussed on a case-by-case basis with each interested insurer.

Are the first health insurers already offering “The Diner”?

So far, we have started discussions that we hope will soon lead to partnerships. We are of course still very interested in talking to any health insurance company that is interested in promoting and developing Swiss, innovative and science-based digital solutions for the benefit of the population.

The questions were asked by Binci Heeb.

Prof. Dr. Lucas Spierer, CEO, is head of the Laboratory of Neurorehabilitation Science at the Medical Section of the University of Fribourg. After completing his doctorate in clinical neuroscience at CHUV and the Faculty of Biology and Medicine at the University of Lausanne in 2008, he moved to Fribourg to set up his own research laboratory. In 2022, he founded the start-up Neuria with four members of his team.

Read also: Healthcare: Cost increase higher than expected