CES 2026: I tried Neurable’s brain-sensing headphones

Neural’s pitch at CES 2026 is bold: what if activity tracking didn’t just include your mouse, keyboard, or heart rate, but also your thoughts?

That idea is now embodied in chunky-yet-surprisingly-designed gaming headphones in collaboration with HP’s HyperX brand. Inside the earphones are EEG sensors designed to read brain signals in real time, allowing Neurable’s software to track concentration, cognitive load, and reaction speed while playing.

I tried out Neurable’s neurotech headphones during a private demo with the team inside the Palazzo, away from the hustle and bustle of the show floor. The headset has thick earcups and fabric packaging designed to hide the EEG sensors without resembling lab equipment.

It should be noted that Neurable did not start in the games. Many of the company’s technologies were developed in academic settings and tested with the Department of Defense, including applications for monitoring brain health after blast exposure.

The headset supports live metrics for streamers and coaches, including focus, mental speed, and “brain battery,” a measurement meant to indicate when you’re mentally fatigued and should take a break.

Before any “performance boosting” takes place, the system establishes a baseline. Sitting at the demo station, I watched the live graph respond to nothing but my thoughts: focus pushed the line up, distraction pushed it back down. No calibration session, no gel caps, no wires running through my head – something CEO Ramses Alcaide emphasized as a major hurdle Neurable claims has been solved using AI-driven signal processing.

From there, the demo came in Aimlabsa standard FPS training tool used by esports players to measure accuracy and response time. The goal is to hit as many targets as possible in a limited time window. My first run went well, although not spectacularly, and was also hampered by the fact that my contact lenses kept slipping every time I focused too hard.

That base run was important because it set the stage for PRIME.

PRIME is Neural’s neurofeedback program, and is best described as a personal warm-up meditation for your mind. Instead of asking you to “take your mind off” the abstract, PRIME visualizes your focus and cognitive load in real time. As you relax and concentrate, the dots on the screen slowly collapse into a single point — feedback that your brain is getting into the right state.

Alicia Howell-Munson, the research scientist who developed PRIME, described it less as a relaxation exercise and more as a mental tune-up. The session lasted just over a minute for me. Others, I was told, can take anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes, depending on how tired, stressed, or how far they are from their base that day.

When it ended, I felt strangely alert. It’s wireless, but it’s fine. The best comparison I can make is the feeling right after a good meditation session, without a clear sense of purpose. Unfortunately, my contacts continued to drift.

Credit: Chance Townsend / Mashable

After PRIME, I took the same again Aimlabs test. Despite my eyes fighting me, the numbers improved. I hit more targets, and my reaction time dropped significantly, from about 500 milliseconds down to the mid-450s.

That’s consistent with what Neurable says it saw in early testing. According to the company, everyday players and sports athletes who use PRIME have shown an average improvement in reaction time of about 40 milliseconds, as well as gains in accuracy and hitting the target. In competitive situations, those ratios are important.

The feeling afterwards was quite pleasant, all things considered. Everything on the screen felt slow, but I was reacting very quickly. Alcaide described it as “your brain’s dot moment,” which sounds corny until you experience it.

Although it is still a proof of concept, the team very much expects to have this product on the market in the near future.

Go to the Mashable CES 2026 hub for the latest news and live updates from the biggest tech game, where Mashable reporters report live.