Adam Gazzaley is an American neuroscientist, author, photographer, entrepreneur and inventor. He is the founder and executive director of Neuroscape and the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco. He is co-founder and Chief Science Advisor of Akili Interactive Labs, JAZZ Venture Partners, and Sensync. Gazzaley is the inventor of the first video game approved by the FDA as a medical treatment. He is a Board of Trustee member, Science Council member and Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. He has authored over 140 scientific articles.
Gazzaley founded Gazzaley Lab at UCSF in 2006 and the UCSF Neuroscience Imaging Center in 2007. His research approach uses a combination of human neurophysiological tools, including functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography and transcranial stimulation. He used this approach to show that older adults exhibit neural deficits in suppressing distractions and also while multitasking. Several of Gazzaley's studies explore how cognitive abilities may be enhanced via engagement with custom designed video games, neurofeedback and TES. In 2009 he designed a video game, NeuroRacer, to enhance cognitive abilities of older adults. In a study published in 2013 as the cover story of Nature he showed that the multitasking nature of the game caused improvements in tasks outside of the game involving working memory and sustained attention. He created the Neuroscape Lab at UCSF, an environment designed to create and validate neurodiagnostics and neurotherapeutics using newly emerging technology. He developed the GlassBrain, a 3D MRI brain visualization that displays overlaid rhythmic brain activity in real-time using EEG recordings in collaboration with scientists at UCSD. In 2016, he merged Gazzaley Lab, Neuroscience Imaging Center and Neuroscape Lab into one research center – Neuroscape — with the mission of bridging technology and neuroscience to create real-world solutions to enhance brain function.
Industry
In 2001, Gazzaley founded his first company, Wanderings Inc, to sell fine art prints of his nature photography. In 2011, Gazzaley co-founded Akili Interactive Labs, a company that develops, validates and distributes digital medicine via scientifically validated video games, and serves as a board member and its Chief Science Advisor. On June 15th, 2020, Akili’s EndeavorRx was FDA-cleared as a prescription treatment for children with ADHD. This landmark event marked the first FDA-cleared digital treatment for ADHD, and the first video game approved by the FDA as the treatment of any medical condition. It was reviewed through FDA’s de novo pathway and so its clearance creates a new regulatory classification of medicine. In 2015, he co-founded JAZZ Venture Partners, a venture capital firm investing in experiential technology to improve human performance, and serves as its Chief Scientist. In 2016, Gazzaley co-founded Sensync, a company creating a Sensory Immersion Vessel to offer a novel wellness treatment called the Deep Brain Massage. He serves as its Chief Science Advisor
Gazzaley authored The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech world, along with Dr. Larry Rosen. It was published by MIT Press in October 2016. It won the 2017 PROSE Award in the category of Biomedicine and Neuroscience
