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NEUROSEC (Neuroscience, Ethics and Society) launches bioethics game about digital phenotyping and mental health. 'Tracing Tomorrow' is a digital game prototype which investigates young people's values and preferences in the context of digital phenotyping for mental health in schools.

Image incorporates three images, including: school locker, a projector saying 'mental health' and an aerial cartoon of someones bedroom.
Screen image from the Tracing Tomorrow game 2020

The Tracing Tomorrow game experience is aimed at young people aged 16-18 years in the UK, but it is available to anyone for free. 

The game had over 4,000 players in less than 24 hours after its launch.

 

We are thrilled that our bioethics game is giving voice to young people. Early intervention in mental health is the new paradigm, but interventions need to be acceptable, trustworthy and relevant for young people, otherwise they simply won't work.Professor Ilina Singh, Department of Psychiatry.

Professor Ilina Singh and her team at Neuroscience, Ethics & Society, Department of Psychiatry, have been collaborating with young people and game developers to build a digital experience that will immerse young people in vital decision-making scenarios.

The game, funded by a Wellcome Trust Enrichment Award, serves as a proof-of-concept for a step-change innovation in bioethics research and engagement methodology. Developed as part of a Wellcome Trust senior investigator project entitled ‘Becoming Good: Early Intervention Ethics’, the game is both a scalable public engagement tool, and a novel research method to investigate young people’s values and preferences with regard to digital data privacy and mental health risk information.

Spin-off studies are in the pipeline to measure the effectiveness of the game as a methodology, and to deepen understanding of the reasoning behind morally charged choices in mental health risk information scenarios.

The NEUROSECTeam plans to start a Design Bioethics Lab to enable development of this model for next generation health innovations that require young people’s active engagement and informed deliberation.

Our Tracing Tomorrow game.