Imagine being able to tune your mind into a state of higher productivity and flow just by slipping on a pair of headphones. Thanks to advancing technology, this is increasingly possible.
Mental fitness tracking headphones are a type of neuroscience wearable that come equipped with sensors that can monitor your brain activity and provide feedback to help you optimize your cognitive resources.
They allow you to visualize your mental state in real-time, identify when your mind is wandering and gently nudge you back on track, aid your focus with adaptive music, and provide actionable insights to form more effective habits and routines.
This wearable tech offers a promising new way to tackle the challenges of distraction and mental fatigue that can plague any of us.
There are 3 mental fitness tracker options worth checking out: Enophones, Neurable, and Vital Neuro. Here’s a look at what they are and what sets them apart.
1. Enophones
The Enophones are the best place to start. They’re not just a great neuroscience wearable that we’ve reviewed previously, they’re the most affordable option of the three, with a current price tag of $399.
There are 4 advanced EEG sensors situated on the ear pads and the cushioning of the headband. Connect them to an app on your phone through Bluetooth, and you get real-time information on your brainwaves.
They combine music with those real-time brain readings to construct adaptive soundscapes and visuals using AI, which helps inspire your creativity and keep you in the flow.
You can choose music from a range of categories to match your goals—Calm, Focus, Flow, Energy, Wind Down, and Sleep. Each has audio that makes use of binaural beats and isochronic tones to guide your mind into the ideal state.
You can also use tracking mode to forgo the music or listen to your own playlists. The headphones are powered by Onkyo which produce great sound, and they’re noise-cancelling, so distractions are kept to a minimum.
You’ll get detailed reports of your brainwave activity, highlighting the different frequency bands that were present during your session, and giving you a score based on how close you were to the target brain patterns.
One drawback is that, at this point, the app is for iOS devices only, with an Android version in development. Otherwise they’re a great introduction to brain-tracking and neurofeedback.
2. Neurable
Neurable have recently launched the MW75 Neuro. They’re built on the back of the Master & Dynamic MW75 headphones, a high-quality pair of noise-cancelling headphones, and now capable of reading brain signals.
12 EEG channels are comfortably hidden behind the fabric of the ear cushions, powered by the Neurable AI that can identify your level of focus, and recommend when your brain needs to take a break and recharge.
The battery also lasts for about 8 hours with the sensors active, longer if you are only listening to music. They use adaptive noise cancellation technology that adjusts levels based on the noise in your surroundings.
You wear them while you engage in daily tasks and activities. Once you start a session, you go to work and the device begins monitoring how long you spend in high, medium, or low levels of focus.
You only need to go back to the app if you want to pause or stop the session, at which point you’ll be given a score based on how well you focused during the activity, as well as graphs and extra details to study.
The headphones themselves can store up to 16 hours of data, so you don’t always need your phone connected—you can connect them and get all those important insights at a later time.
In fact, you always get your insights after the activities, it will only interject during an activity if it thinks you need to take a break. This is unlike the Enophones which help you during the sessions with adaptive media.
On the design side, not only are they high-end headphones with great sound, but they’re crafted from stainless steel and aluminium with lambskin leather detailing that makes them look and feel luxurious. And you can get them in Navy, Silver, Onyx, and Olive
The app is available on both iOS and Android, though the device is on the expensive side at $699. But, given the Master & Dynamic MW75 headphones are $599, you’re basically paying an extra $100 for Neurable’s EEG sensors and AI data crunching capacities.
3. Vital Neuro
The Vital Neuro is the newest neuroscience wearable on the block, and it doesn’t come cheap, at $795. It’s also only for iOS at the moment, though we’d expect Android support to follow.
The first to note about the Vital Neuro is that there are extra EEG sensors that branch out to the front and back of the headband, meaning it can pick up on a wider area of brain activity.
Like Enophones, there’s adaptive audio that responds to your brain waves. As you listen, the vital Neuro will also play subtle ‘reward tones’, to reward you for spending time within the desired levels of brainwave frequencies.
You can choose from 5 modes to help with particular goals: Sleep, focus, relaxation, stress management, and performance enhancement.
As you spend time in the different modes, the Vital Neuro will track progress through different levels and weekly goals, and establish a resilience score that measures how successful you are on those weekly goals.
It will also calculate a Brain Vitality Index (BVI), which is a measure of your overall brain function, a great way to see that you’re making long-term progress and improvement.
The added sensors, wealth of data, and adaptive audio, make the Vital Neuro more than capable of not just tracking your progress but playing an active part in it.
Whether it’s worth the increased price is the question. We’d expect Android support soon, it’s also only available in grey, and can only be shipped to the US at this time.
Peering Inside The Mind With Mental Fitness Tracking Smart Headphones
Thanks to neuroscience wearables, what was once an elusive and mysterious domain is being illuminated, with the advancing technology revealing insights about brain activity that until recently were entirely out of reach.
These new brain-tracking headphones offer a powerful way to measure and manage different cognitive functions, from optimising attention, calming a frazzled mind, or reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety.
They each have their distinct advantages, so whether you prefer the affordability of Enophones, the luxurious design of Neurable, or the comprehensive feedback of Vital Neuro, there’s bound to be an option that works for you.
