When people gain access to their own brain data and personalized guidance, they can significantly improve their sleep, focus, stress levels, and long-term cognitive health. In this episode, Ariel Garten, neuroscientist, psychotherapist, and co-founder of MUSE, explains how real-time brain tracking is transforming both personal wellness and clinical care. She describes how MUSE’s soft, low-profile headband uses EEG and fNIRS to measure brain activity and blood oxygenation, enabling accurate sleep tracking, attention training, and cognitive insight. Ariel highlights the company’s strong research foundation, including 200+ published studies and multiple Mayo Clinic trials showing reduced stress, improved fatigue, and a 54% decrease in burnout among clinicians using MUSE for just five minutes a day. She also details new features like the Digital Sleeping Pill, deep sleep stimulation, and an AI sleep coach, and shares how researchers, clinicians, and pharma teams are using MUSE to power distributed studies and measure neurophysiological responses to interventions. Tune in and learn how personalized brain insights could transform sleep, cognition, and the future of preventive health.
About Ariel Garten:
Ariel Garten is a visionary neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and thought leader best known as the co-founder and chief evangelist of Muse, the brain-sensing headband that makes meditation easier through real-time neurofeedback. With a foundation in neuroscience from the University of Toronto, Ariel’s early research at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre focused on Parkinson’s disease and hippocampal neurogenesis. Her work bridges science, art, and mental wellness, a fusion evident in Muse’s elegant design and its mission to help users strengthen their minds through technology.
Before founding InteraXon, the parent company of Muse, in 2009, Ariel worked as a therapist in private practice, helping clients uncover clarity and overcome self-limiting beliefs. Her interest in brain-computer interfaces began in 2003 in Dr. Steve Mann’s lab, where she explored thought-controlled technologies—an experience that later inspired InteraXon’s debut project, Bright Ideas, which allowed participants at the 2010 Winter Olympics to control the lights on the CN Tower and Niagara Falls with their minds.
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