For today’s blog, we talked to Prof. Moshe Bar, our co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Hedonia. Read about his insights into creativity and following our interests, and discover how a series of fateful accidents led him to the discovery of a novel mental health treatment, Facilitating Thought Progression (FTP).
As the former Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at Harvard Medical School and an internationally renowned neuroscientist, Prof. Bar has received many awards and honors for his work, including the 21st Century Science Initiative Award from the McDonnell Foundation.
Prof. Bar’s early career: An unexpected path
Prof. Moshe Bar's journey into cognitive neuroscience wasn’t driven by a childhood passion or a clear-cut plan. Instead, he says it was a “series of happy coincidences” that guided him along a winding path to lead him to where he is today. “I wish I could tell you that I’m one of those people who knew what they wanted to study in kindergarten,” he shares, “but that wasn’t the case.”
Bar’s academic path began in a field far removed from neuroscience. “I got my Bachelor's in electrical engineering – I wasn’t really passionate about it, but I guess I wanted to make my father happy,” he recalls. However, it wasn’t until he pursued a Master’s degree in computer science that his true interests began to take shape.
Initially focused on understanding how computers process images, Bar found himself pondering a more fundamental question: how do humans understand images and objects? “When we see a picture of an object, we’re able to immediately put it into context. There are no objects that exist in isolation – we see a picture of sunscreen, and we think: beach, sun, waves, and so on. But how do our brains do that? That’s what I wanted to understand. That’s what led me to study neuroscience,” he explains.
The birth of Facilitating Thought Progression (FTP)
Prof. Bar earned his PhD in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Southern California, studying under renowned psychologists like Irving Biederman. His postdoctoral research at Harvard University further deepened his understanding of how the brain processes information.
From there, Prof. Bar held a joint faculty appointment at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where he served as the director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. His research primarily focused on how the brain represents and utilizes context, a crucial aspect of human cognition that became a cornerstone of his later work.
“In the beginning, I was only focused on understanding the brain. Practical applications didn't interest me – of course, as an individual human being, I had great empathy for people who suffered from depression and other mental health problems. But in my work, I was interested simply in understanding how the brain works. I wasn’t trying to cure anyone,” he admits.
However, this perspective began to shift when Bar stumbled upon a piece of information that changed the course of his research.
One day, while reading a general psychology journal, Prof. Bar came across a mention of how people with depression have difficulty taking context into account. “The authors just mentioned it in passing, almost like it was common knowledge — which of course it was, for therapists and psychologists — but for me it was news,” he reflects.
At the time, he was conducting innovative research on how the brain understands objects in context using fMRIs, and this piece of information resonated deeply with him. He realized that the way people with depression think could be a key to understanding and potentially treating their condition.
Bar’s research identified three main characteristics of depressed thinking: it’s constricted, repetitive, and slow. “In our research, we learned that there are three main characteristics of depressed thinking: 1. It's restrictive. It doesn't expand; it's narrowly constricted to very small topics. 2. It's repetitive -- people with depression tend to ruminate on the same topics over and over again. And 3. It's slow. Just like people with depression often move physically slower, their thoughts are also slower and more lethargic; they aren't able to move to the next topic as quickly.”
With this understanding, Bar began focusing on how to counteract these thinking patterns. “I thought, now that we understand it, let's try to undo this way of thinking.”
Mental health treatment and the benefits of Mood Bloom
Prof. Bar’s research eventually led to the development of a promising therapy approach called Facilitating Thought Progression (FTP), which is now integrated into Mood Bloom.
“In our clinical trial at MGH, we found that simply playing Mood Bloom for 15 minutes per day, for as little as eight weeks, was enough to reduce depression symptoms by almost half. When you first open the game, it's a farm game – which is fun, and you can play this as long as you like. But the real benefit is in the TGs (therapeutic games)– these are the FTP exercises that help to combat symptoms of depression.”
Reflecting on FTP’s simplicity, Prof. Bar acknowledges that what he once was afraid was a drawback is now something he appreciates. “I used to be almost apologetic about how simple FTP is, but now I know that its simplicity is its elegance,” he says.
For individuals with major depression, the straightforwardness of FTP and its integration into Mood Bloom can be life-saving.
“People with depression suffer from anhedonia, which is a loss of pleasure— which also leads to a lack of motivation,” Bar explains.
“CBT and other therapy methods can be extremely effective and they are powerful tools for those who can commit to it – but it also requires the person to be relatively high-functioning. These are people who can usually hold down jobs, who can transport themselves to therapy sessions, and so on. For people with severe depression, they can be so debilitated that they aren’t able to do that. So having FTP right in the palm of your hand can be simple enough for them that they don't even have to think about it – they just play. All they have to do is play.”
“People with depression don't need to be loyal to only one thing. Mental health treatment is not a religion. You can play Mood Bloom and continue with other treatments.”
But Prof. Bar also recognizes that Mood Bloom isn’t the only way to approach depression, nor should it be taken as such. “People with depression don't need to be loyal to only one thing. Mental health treatment is not a religion,” he says. “You might go see a therapist every week but also take medication. Or you could play Mood Bloom and continue with other treatments. Actually, trying different combinations of things that work for you can often be the most effective approach.”
Creativity and the importance of following your passions
When speaking with Prof. Bar, it’s clear that he is a highly creative and passionate person who isn’t afraid to follow his interests wherever they may take him – and it’s this curiosity that helped bring Mood Bloom to those who need it most. When asked about the important role that creativity and playfulness play in both his life and in the development of Mood Bloom, he explains:
“Children tend to be so much more creative and open and playful than we are as adults because of their brains – they haven’t yet developed their prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain that is in charge of inhibition. Don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t say that. I watch my own children and can see that they have much less inhibition, so they're much more playful and creative. To qualify, I must say that inhibition is also important – we don’t want to act on dangerous impulses without deliberation of potential consequences, but the price is diminished creativity and playfulness.”
Reflecting on his unconventional career path and personal experience, Bar offers this advice to younger generations: “I've been told that when you look at my educational and career path, you can immediately tell that I have ADHD, which I do. I've just followed my interests, and whenever I talk to younger people I always recommend that: follow your interests and see where it takes you.”
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