There’s something very sci-fi about The Muse S Athena, a headband that tracks brain activity and blood flow, ready to help train your mental strength. It uses several sensors to provide insight into how your brain is performing, and the latest challenge the company has added to its app is a game you have to use brain power to control.
The game features an owl in flight, and its movement is controlled by mental strain, which sounds like your thoughts to us, rather than fingers on your phone’s screen. The harder you think, the more the owl soars, and when you slow down your thoughts, the owl descends. Muse says the task helps build cognitive endurance, and because you see real-time information it can lead to being able to strengthen your concentration and focus, as well as switching between them and a relaxed state.
See what we mean about sci-fi? It’s like a training ground for budding Scanners. Here’s how it works. The Muse S Athena uses an electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor to track brainwave activity and measure the switch between focus and relaxation, plus a Function Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) sensor to observe oxygen levels in the frontal cortex, which Muse says shows how the brain is “fueled.” AI-driven algorithms interpret brain activity and measure its strength, and the effort you’re putting in.
Why would you want to wear the headband and track your brain’s activity? Understanding how much energy your brain is using (via the fNIRS sensor) and building the ability to stay focused or shift between it and a relaxed state (measured by the EEG) increases efficiency, so you can stay focused for longer, with less effort according to Muse. Additionally, it can also help you quickly relax. Improving brain health may have other benefits in the future, and slow the onset of syndromes like dementia.
Jean-Michel Fournier, CEO of Interaxon which produces the Muse S Athena, said:
“True health isn’t just physical, it starts with your brain. Athena is designed to tackle the growing challenge of cognitive decline while marking Muse’s evolution from meditation to full-spectrum brain health. Just as physical fitness requires strength, endurance, and skill, mental fitness demands the same targeted training. Athena provides the tools to enhance cognitive performance, build resilience, and support lifelong brain health.”
In addition to controlling the owl’s flight with your brain, there are other tools designed to train brain activity, where sound is used to ensure your mind stays focused, and the headband will alert you if it wanders. The Muse S Athena can be worn to track sleep, and has a feature where it can help ensure you fall back asleep if you’re woken up unexpectedly. It also recently teamed up with Alphabeats to use music to help build mental strength with the headband.
The Muse S Athena has a different design to previous Muse headband models like the Muse 2. It’s made of soft stretchy fabric so it’s more suited to wearing overnight, and has a more lifestyle-like look to it, unlike the Muse 2 which belonged in a lab. The battery is expected to last for around 10 hours on a single charge, and the accompanying app is compatible with both Android and iOS. Many features are available for free, but to unlock them all you’ll need to subscribe which costs $13 per month. This is on top of the hefty $475 price of the Muse S Athena headband, which is available to purchase from Muse now.
