For the past few months, when I really needed to get something done, I put on a special pair of headphones that could read my mind. Well, kind of. The headphones are equipped with a brain-computer interface that picks up electrical signals from my brain and uses algorithms to interpret that data. When my focus starts to slip, the headphones know it, and an app tells me to take a break.

It sounds like something out of science fiction, but a decade-old startup called Neurable is pioneering the technology, and it’s preparing to put the brain-tracking tricks into more gadgets. Earbuds, glasses, helmets — anything that can get an electrode near your head could provide a real-time stream of data about what’s going on inside of it. Neurable’s technology uses a combination of electroencephalography (EEG) sensors to collect brain data and algorithms to interpret those signals. Beyond measuring attention, the company is now using that data to track and improve brain health.

I want to emphasize again that this technology does not actually read your mind in the sense of knowing your thoughts. But, it knows when you’re entertained or distracted and could one day detect symptoms of depression or, on a much more consequential front, early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

I came across Neurable on a longer mission to understand the future of health-tracking technology by testing what’s out there now. It’s one that left me anxious, covered in smart rings and continuous glucose monitors, and more confused about the definition of well-being. That’s because almost all health trackers that are popular on the market right now — Apple Watches, Oura Rings, Whoop Bands — are downstream sensors. They measure consequences, like elevated heart rate or body temperature, rather than the root cause of that state. By tapping directly into your brainwaves, a brain-computer interface can spot issues sometimes years before they would show up.

It could one day detect symptoms of depression or, on a much more consequential front, early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

“Biologically, your brain is designed to hide your weaknesses: It’s an evolutionary effect,” Neurable’s co-founder and CEO Ramses Alcaide, a neuroscientist, told me. “But when you’re measuring from the source, you pick up those things as they’re occurring, instead of once there’s finally downstream consequences, and that’s the real advantage of measuring the brain.”

Other major tech companies are also exploring ways to incorporate non-invasive brain-computer interfaces into headphones. A couple years ago, Apple quietly applied for a patent for an AirPod design that uses electrodes to monitor brain activity, and NextSense, which grew out of Google’s moonshot division,

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