This week, neurotech startup Neurable launched its MW75 Neuro headphones with a pretty seductive pitch—one that I'm not quite buying.
If you ask me, a pair of headphones that can read your mind sounds either too good to be true, or too creepy to be good. Neurable doesn’t plan to stop at headphones, and they aren’t the only company making a name in the space. Glasses, helmets, what have you—the next wave of wearable devices are targeting the brain. Whether you find it tempting or find it terrifying, the real question: Is this technology even real? Can "brain tracking" headphones actually measure anything meaningful, or are people paying $499 for an elaborate placebo wrapped in EEG sensors?
The concept behind brain wearables is this: Using electroencephalography (EEG) sensors embedded in headphone ear cups, devices like Neurable's MW75 Neuro claim to track electrical signals from your brain, translating them into actionable insights about your mental state. The headphones promise to tell you when you're losing focus, when you need a break, and even provide a "cognitive snapshot" of your brain health over time.
The problem, according to experts across technology law and neuroscience, is that we're nowhere near ready for this technology to become mainstream—neither from a regulatory standpoint nor a scientific one. Let's start with the science.
How does the science of brain wearables hold up?
José M. Muñoz, an associate at The Centre for Neurotechnology and Law in the United Kingdom and the International Center for Neuroscience and Ethics in Spain, is blunt in his assessment: "For years, there has been an ongoing debate regarding the effectiveness, accuracy, and challenges of direct-to-consumer neurotechnologies such as this new device from Neurable," he explains. "Although it is true that the algorithms analyzing brain data collected via EEG are steadily improving, this remains a neurotechnology that is still insufficiently accurate outside of a medical or clinical setting."
"In sum, you may be wearing these headphones and believing they are helping to improve your mental health, physical performance, or attention," Muñoz says. "But what you are really improving are the manufacturer's algorithms, while handing over your brain data in exchange for very little."
Dr. Annu Navani offers a more measured perspective. She acknowledges that brain wearables have "significant limitations, including being currently expensive, less clinically validated, and less convenient or comfortable than wrist-worn trackers." The metrics they provide are also harder to translate into practical guidance—most people intuitively understand what to do with their step count, but what action should you take when your "cognitive load score" hits 73?
Think about it (and hey, maybe relish in the fact that no headphones are successfully reading those thoughts): Your brainwave data is arguably the most intimate biometric information you possess. We're talking about a window into your mental and emotional states. So what happens when you willingly give up this data with no meaningful oversight?
The implications are stark: "What happens when a 'brain wearable' is hacked?" Kashman asks. The lack of regulation means users have little recourse and limited knowledge about how their neural data is being stored, used, or potentially sold.
The bottom line
So, simply put, at the time of this publication, asked with my own private brain waves: Are brain wearables the future of fitness tracking? Almost certainly not in the way their manufacturers hope. The technology is too immature, the regulatory landscape too barren, and consumer wariness too high for these devices to start popping up like Fitbits tomorrow.
For now, brain wearables occupy an awkward position: too invasive for casual users, too unproven for serious applications, and too unregulated to trust. They may have a future, but it's not this one—not until the science catches up to the marketing, and the law catches up to both.
Until then, your regular fitness tracker measuring your heart rate and steps? That's probably telling you more useful information about your health than any headphones reading your brainwaves ever could.
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