Muse's new brain age score misses by 3.8 years on average. Read it as a trend

Muse started rolling out a brain age score on its EEG headbands Oct. 19 and said every user would have it by Oct. 26 (Muse release). By Muse’s own numbers, the estimate lands about 3.8 years from a person’s real age on average.

Muse, made by Toronto’s Interaxon, reads brain activity through four dry sensors on the forehead and behind the ears. Brain Age combines that signal with four short cognitive tests and reports whether your brain is tracking younger than, aligned with, or older than your actual age (Muse).

Our read on the weekly swing

Muse says a person’s weekly reading typically moves about 1.9 years from one week to the next (Muse release). That swing is half the 3.8 year average miss. So a reading that jumps two years older between Mondays is ordinary noise by the company’s own math, not a sign that something changed.

Muse gives the same advice. “Give it a few weeks before you read much into any single change” (Muse). Its product page says half of Muse users land between about 2 years younger and 3 years older than their actual age. That figure comes from weekly readings of 226 users in 2026.

For anyone watching an aging parent, the label matters most. Muse calls Brain Age a general wellness feature and says it does not diagnose, detect or predict dementia or any other condition. If memory or thinking worries you, Muse’s own page says to talk to a doctor (Muse).

How Brain Age works and what it costs

• The first reading needs at least 10 minutes of eyes closed sessions on 7 different days, plus the four tests: processing speed, spatial memory, impulse control and selective attention (Muse).
• New readings arrive every Monday. Sessions on 3 days a week keep it current.
• It works on the Muse 2, Muse S and Muse S Athena. The first reading is free.
• Weekly readings after that need Muse Premium, which Muse sells bundled with the Muse 2 at $309 or the Muse S Athena at $539 (Muse release).

Muse says the model builds on its 2024 peer reviewed study in Imaging Neuroscience, which used more than 5,200 at home Muse recordings from people aged 18 to 81 (Muse).

A patch gets federal money

NYU Tandon School of Engineering said Oct. 21 it won up to $31 million from ARPA-H, the federal health research agency. It will lead 14 universities and companies building a skin patch that measures inflammation around the clock (NYU Tandon).

The patch, called SENTINEL, is smaller than a fingernail and samples fluid just under the skin with painless microneedles. The goal is one patch that tracks 15 markers at once, to flag sepsis or a lupus flare early. The project runs four and a half years and ends with the patch’s first human trial at NYU Langone Health. It is a research device, not a product you can buy.

QALO sells a ring with no monthly fee

QALO, the brand that started with silicone rings, said Oct. 20 that quarterback Russell Wilson and singer Ciara joined the company as co owners and investors (QALO release). QALO did not say how much they put in.

QALO says it has served more than 2.2 million customers since 2013 and that its wearable user base grew more than 400% in a year. Both of its trackers, the SR-2 Smart Ring and the SL-1 Smart Band, list at $199.95 and need no subscription (QALO). QALO’s site says they are HSA and FSA eligible.

Oura posts a voice job

Oura posted a job for a Voice AI Lead on Oct. 23 (Oura). The role is a six month fixed term spot on its Design team in San Francisco, paying $185,000 to $200,000 in its top pay region. The hire would shape Oura’s “Voice vision” and test outside text to speech and speech to speech models. Oura has announced no voice feature.

The split to watch

The three companies sell health scores in different ways. Oura says its ring’s daily insights come with an Oura Membership (Oura). Muse gives the first brain age reading free, then charges for weekly ones. QALO charges once for the device. Before you buy any of them, ask what the score costs after the first month.