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Meet Alpha Peak, your cognitive performance score

Julia Park

September 04, 2024

How well is your brain performing? You might feel healthy with no obvious issues, but how do you measure that mental fitness? We track cardio and strength training with ease, but there hasn't been a simple, science-backed way to track cognitive performance—until now.

Muse is excited to announce the latest feature for Muse Headbands, Alpha Peak. Alpha Peak measures your brain’s alpha wave activity, allowing you to track your cognitive performance, see how your brain is performing today, and monitor its changes over time.

What is Alpha Peak?

Alpha Peak measures the highest alpha wave frequency (APF) produced by your brain. Alpha waves, which are closely associated with cognitive performance, are a type of brain wave occurring between 8 and 12 hz. Alpha Waves are associated with a state of calm focus and creativity — that flow state feeling you might get while painting a landscape, writing a poem, or locking in on a complex task. When your brain is giving off Alpha Waves, it usually means you’re feeling creative, composed, and relaxed.

The Alpha Peak represents the highest magnitude frequency produced at a given time. But what does it mean? The higher your alpha peak frequency, generally, the better your brain can perform. A study from 2016 with over 6000 participants found APF strongly correlates with cognitive performance, including overall health, processing speed, and memory. Thus, a higher APF score suggests your brain is processing things faster, while a lower one suggests the opposite. Because Alpha Waves are associated with relaxation, Alpha Peak is not a measure of activity but rather capacity — in essence, a higher APF means your brain can shift gears faster.

Think of Alpha Peak Frequency like the Heart Rate Variability (HRV) metric of your brain – tracking your Alpha Peak Frequency with Muse can help you determine how you’re feeling today and how your brain power is trending over time You can correlate the impact of things like stress, sleep, alcohol consumption, or even meditation on your processing speed. At the same time, Alpha Peak tracking helps you train your brain to maximize cognitive performance, mastering your mind one fraction of a hertz at a time.

Decoding brain performance with Alpha Peak

Alpha Peak is one of a few research-backed ways to measure your brain performance. It provides real-time insights into how your brain is functioning and tracks changes over time. Monitoring your Alpha Peak helps you see the effects of neuroplasticity, where your brain adapts and strengthens its pathways through training, and aids in spotting early signs of cognitive decline, including changes related to brain aging.

Harnessing the power of Alpha Peak starts with understanding how it works.

The impact of age on Alpha Peak

Your APF increases steadily through adolescence and young adulthood, reaching its highest value around the age of 20. Studies suggest that certain cognitive functions, including memory, executive functions, processing speed, and reasoning, can start to decline as early as your 30s. Accordingly, APF naturally declines as you age, but premature decline or a significant drop in APF can suggest deeper issues are at play.

While slowing down is a natural part of aging — it’s how we’re designed — these changes can be so subtle that they’re impossible to notice from day to day. But that doesn’t mean they don’t add up: studies suggest that up to 20% of individuals over the age of 65 have what’s considered Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). These individuals are found to have significant changes in APF, suggesting a breakdown in cognitive acuity.

Factors that affect APF

Since APF is a measure of how your brain is performing, there a number of biological and environmental factors that can impact your score, including:

Poor sleep quality
Stress and anxiety
Poor diet
Sedentary lifestyles
Alcohol and substance use
Noise and distractions
Mental fatigue
Neurological conditions

On the flip side, maintaining good sleep, a healthy diet, managing stress, and mindfulness exercises can all help improve your APF score. It’s simple—your brain functions best when it’s well-rested, nourished, and stress-free, not when it’s tired, hungry for nutrients, and overwhelmed.

In fact, a 2018 study published in Clinical Neurophysiology examined how physical activity impacts individual alpha peak frequency (IAPF) in older adults, particularly those at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease. The research found that physical activity can be a protective factor against cognitive decline, highlighting its potential benefits for brain health.

Alpha Peak and neurofeedback

A recent study published in Brain Sciences explores the modulation of individual alpha frequency (IAF) through neurofeedback training. The findings show that participants were able to up-regulate their IAF, which correlated with enhanced cognitive performance in tasks such as mental rotation and working memory tests. This study highlights the potential of IAF training for cognitive enhancement and therapeutic applications for those with cognitive impairments.

Because Alpha Peak values change with age, tracking and training it empowers you to get ahead of the curve. While you can’t undo the effects of aging, you can mitigate it through brain training activities and mindfulness exercises. Concerted brain training with research-backed exercises and devices like Muse can influence your alpha wave production and increase your Alpha Peak.

Alpha Peak training and Muse

With the new Alpha Peak feature, Musers can incorporate Alpha Peak scores into their brain training regimen. Whenever you engage in a biofeedback session with Muse, you’ll receive a cognitive performance score and personalized tips for optimizing your alpha wave activity. After just a few sessions, Muse establishes your Alpha Peak baseline, so you can see how every session fares against your average score.

Over time, you’ll be able to connect and compare how things like sleep, stress, environment, and even alcohol or substance use impacts your personal Alpha Peak score. Likewise, you’ll be able to catch changes in your APF early, and find practical ways to keep your mind sharp even as you age.

With this data, you can fine tune and optimize your brain’s full potential.The difference in a few tenths of a hertz — the difference between a good and a great poem, perhaps — may come down to your mindfulness habits, your sleep routine, or even adding a white noise machine to your bedroom.

Mastering your mind with Muse

The best time to start brain training is today. Whether you’re looking to maximize cognitive or athletic performance, master your mind with mindfulness training, or mitigate the impact of age on your brain, Muse is here to help you stay sharp.

Muse headbands give you the tools and data you need to train your brain with real-time biofeedback. Through our innovative EEG technology, Muse can measure things like brain waves, heart rate, movement, and now Alpha Peak, while you meditate, exercise, or even sleep. With this information, Muse can give you personalized tips and recommendations to enhance your brain training so you can master your mind and reach your full potential.

Click here to learn more about Alpha Peak, or visit our shop to choose the right Muse for your brain training goals.

Looking for more info on alpha peak frequency? Here are additional research & supporting literature alpha peak frequency: