Psycho and neuro-educational games are not just a fun tool. Today, they represent a particularly relevant lever for mental health promotion, early prevention, mental health literacy and scientific mediation. In a context where psychological difficulties are increasing among children, adolescents and young adults, traditional approaches to information are often insufficient, too abstract, too top-down or too far removed from lived experience. The challenge is therefore no longer just to transmit knowledge, but to create devices capable of making this knowledge understandable, memorable, embodied and socially shareable.

The invention consists of an original architecture of narrative and psychoeducational games integrating, in a structured manner, knowledge derived from clinical, cognitive, affective, social, and developmental neuroscience, cognitive psychology, theory of mind, mentalization, schema therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

The inventive character resides in the systematic and coherent translation of validated brain-behavior mechanisms into

• narrative worlds
• symbolic or archetypal characters
• repeatable game mechanics
• guided feedback loops
• visual explanatory supports
• and, optionally, digital extensions.

The invention is not based on the novel use of physical carriers such as boards, cards, dice, or tokens taken in isolation, but rather on their original, scientifically mapped combination in the service of emotionally safe, motivating, and developmentally appropriate learning.

Existing tools in mental health, psychoeducation, and educational gaming suffer from several limitations.

A first limitation is that many available tools are either purely didactic or strictly clinical. The former may transmit information without enabling experiential appropriation, while the latter often remain confined to specialized settings and are limited by barriers such as access, cost, waiting times, stigma, or motivational burden.

A second limitation is the lack of accessible, engaging, and transdiagnostic tools capable of targeting core mechanisms such as

• early maladaptive schemas
• cognitive distortions
• impaired mentalization
• or indecision under uncertainty.

A third limitation lies in the frequent absence of rigorous integration between contemporary neuroscience and formats that are actually usable by youth, families, schools, or non-specialist facilitators. The present invention addresses these limitations by providing a suite of original tools that render such scientific models accessible in the form of structured, repeatable, and context-flexible narrative games.

The invention consists of a suite of four games, each of which may take the form of a combined ecosystem comprising, in particular

• a story or narrative book
• a board, card, dice, or equivalent game format
• visual explanatory supports based on brain-behavior relationships
• and, optionally, a digital extension such as an application, interactive system, or immersive environment.

Each game translates a specific set of psychological and neurocognitive mechanisms into game tasks, decisions, scenarios, challenges, feedback, and progressive learning sequences.

ToM & MIO

ToM & MIO focuses on internal working models and theory of mind. It aims to support perspective-taking, mental state attribution, understanding of others’ intentions, and social prediction. This invention is primarily intended for children and young adolescents. It draws in particular on social cognition models and systems associated with the temporoparietal junction, medial prefrontal cortex, and precuneus, translated into narratives, interactions, and social inference tasks.

Disto

Disto focuses on the identification, understanding, and reframing of cognitive distortions. It aims to make biased automatic thoughts visible and to support cognitive flexibility, reinterpretation, and emotion regulation. This invention is primarily intended for adolescents and adults. It draws on models from cognitive psychology and CBT, as well as systems involved in cognitive control, salience, and threat processing, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, and amygdala.

Fribourg 3769-DansTaTête

DansTaTête focuses on mentalization and schema therapy. It aims to work on early maladaptive schemas, relational modes, metacognitive flexibility, and the updating of self and other representations. This invention is primarily intended for adolescents and adults. It relies on dimensions of mentalization, including Self and Other, Implicit and Explicit, Cognitive and Affective, Automatic and Controlled, as well as updating dynamics supported by emotionally safe schema-incongruent experiences.

Indécis

Indécis focuses on volition, choice architecture, and profiles of indecision. It aims to support the understanding of internal conflicts, decisional avoidance, recurrent hesitation, and discrepancies between values, motivation, and action. This invention is primarily intended for adolescents and adults. It draws on models from decision neuroscience, motivational psychology, volition, and ACT, including systems related to rapid valuation, arbitration, deliberation, and commitment.

The general inventive principle relies on a translational conversion of brain-behavior mechanisms into playful, narrative, and pedagogical episodes.

More specifically, the invention is based on the following operations

• identifying a relevant psychological or neurocognitive mechanism
• translating that mechanism into a character, scenario, symbol, rule, or game dynamic
• organizing repeatable sequences of choice, feedback, discrepancy, or reframing
• allowing the player to experience emotionally safe yet cognitively meaningful situations
• and fostering the progressive appropriation of new understandings, responses, or strategies.

In certain embodiments, this principle relies on logic akin to predictive processing, in that the player encounters controlled discrepancies between expectation and outcome that may support more flexible updating of representations or habitual responses.

New and essential elements.

The new and essential elements include

1. The neuroscientific and psychological mapping into gameplay. This constitutes the inventive core of the invention. Validated mechanisms are transformed into game structures, narratives, characters, choices, and feedback.
2. The structured narrative scaffolding. The fictional worlds, characters, and archetypes are not decorative but functional.. They reduce cognitive load, enhance engagement, and support appropriation of the content.
3. The targeted game mechanics. The mechanics are designed to operationalize specific psychological tasks such as perspective-taking, cognitive reframing, exposure to unexpected yet safe outcomes, value-guided decision-making, or schema updating.

New and important elements

The new and important elements include

1. neuropsychoeducational visual supports
2. compasses, maps, diagrams, or synthetic explanatory representations
3. developmentally targeted design
4. preventive orientation
5. and transferability to school, family, or community settings.

New and optional elements

The new and optional elements include

1. digital applications
2. immersive or interactive environments
3. difficulty adaptation systems
4. tracking features
5. and hybrid remote or online versions.

Old or conventional elements

The old or conventional elements include

• boards
• cards
• dice
• tokens
• booklets
• facilitation guides
• usual session structures

and expected implementation contexts such as school, home, clinic, or research settings.

Novelty and inventive step

The novelty and inventive step of the invention reside in the combination of the following elements

1. an explicit and systematic translation of neuroscientific and psychological models into repeatable game tasks
2. a coherent integration of narrative, mechanics, visualization, and pedagogical mediation
3. the use of guided, safe, and pedagogically structured discrepancies to support cognitive, metacognitive, relational, or decisional flexibility
4. a transdiagnostic, developmental, and preventive positioning
5. the constitution of each game as a coherent ecosystem rather than an isolated medium.

The invention is therefore distinguishable from merely thematic psychology games, non-interactive educational materials, and non-playful clinical tools.

What is essential and what may be omitted

The elements that cannot be omitted without materially altering the inventive identity of the invention are

1. the translational mapping between scientific models and gameplay
2. the narrative structure serving as cognitive and affective scaffolding
3. and the game mechanics targeted at defined psychological processes.

The elements that may be omitted, modified, or substituted depending on the embodiment include

1. digital extensions
2. certain secondary visual supports
3. certain material format variants
4. and certain implementation-related additions.

Possible embodiments

The invention may be embodied in several non-limiting forms

• as a physical board game
• as a standalone card game
• as a hybrid format combining narrative book and game materials
• as a digital format
• as an immersive format
• or as a modular format adapted to clinical, school, family, or research contexts.

In some embodiments, multiple components may be used together. In others, only a subset may be deployed, provided that the inventive core is preserved.

Potential applications

The invention has potential utility in the following fields

1. mental health prevention
2. psychoeducation
3. social and emotional learning
4. scientific mediation
5. complementary tools in clinical settings
6. facilitator training
7. family support
8. educational innovation
9. research and development
10. and large-scale dissemination of neuropsychoeducational tools.

The present invention relates to a coherent suite of four original translational neuropsychoeducational games, namely ToM & MIO, Disto, DansTaTête, and Indécis, designed to translate contemporary models of the brain, behavior, and development into accessible, motivating, and emotionally safe narrative, playful, and pedagogical experiences.

The originality of the invention lies not in the isolated use of conventional game carriers, but in the rigorous, structured, and developmentally attuned integration of neuroscience- and psychology-based knowledge into repeatable, coherent, and transferable game systems intended to support self and other understanding, cognitive flexibility, emotion regulation, volition, and value-guided action.

These games are not a substitute for clinical assessment, specialized care, or evidence-based interventions. On the other hand, they can be powerful complementary tools for awareness, prevention, mediation, training in life skills and support for engagement in educational, family, community and sometimes clinical contexts.