Muse S Athena is here to train your brain like never before

Muse has unveiled the S Athena, a headband that takes brain training beyond meditation. It still uses EEG to track brain activity, but now it adds fNIRS to measure oxygen levels in the prefrontal cortex, giving real-time feedback on mental effort and endurance.

I’ve reviewed the previous Muse devices, and they’ve always had a strong focus on mindfulness. The Muse S is all about sleep, guiding you through meditations to help you wind down at night. The Muse 2, on the other hand, takes a more well-rounded approach, tracking posture, breathing, and heart rate to improve meditation sessions. They are great for relaxation, but the new Muse S Athena is stepping things up—in addition to relaxation it throws cognitive fitness into the mix.

Muse S Athena goes beyond meditation

So what’s new?

Well, for starters, the Muse S Athena doesn’t just train you to become more focused and relaxed, it actually helps you boost your brain’s endurance. The addition of fNIRS means it can now track how much oxygen your brain is using, giving you a better idea of when you’re pushing your mental limits and when you need a break. Combine that with EEG readings, and suddenly, this isn’t just about mindfulness anymore—it’s about building mental resilience and focus over time.

Muse has also thrown AI into the mix in a big way. The new Foundational Brain Model (FBM) takes all your brain activity data and turns it into insights, helping you see progress and adjust your training. Instead of just giving you raw numbers, it actually personalizes your experience, making brain training a little less abstract and a lot more actionable.

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And then there’s the owl. Like before, you get an interactive challenge in the accompanying smartphone app where you control an owl’s flight with your mind. Focus more, and the owl speeds up. Relax, and it slows down. It essentially turns brain training into a game, which makes it a whole lot more interesting than just staring at a graph or listening to meditation instructions. Plus you can now train with your eyes open or closed, which means you can use it for deep focus exercises or more traditional meditation sessions.

And let’s not forget the update to the smartphone app from last year. It allows users to visualise raw brainwave data. You can even follow in real time in the app a chart showing how your alpha waves rise or your focus sharpens as beta waves take hold. While there are one or two wearables out there that also allow for this, Muse has by far the most comprehensive package.

The bigger idea behind all this

The company says it wants to help people stay mentally sharp for the long haul. With cognitive decline and dementia on the rise, tools like this could be a way to keep the brain active and resilient before problems start. EEG and fNIRS together give a more complete picture of brain function, and training with them could help with memory, attention, and problem-solving.

Beyond just personal use, the Muse S Athena has some interesting possibilities for professionals and researchers. It could be used in high-stress jobs to monitor mental fatigue or even in sleep studies, where tracking oxygen levels could help detect early signs of issues like sleep apnea.

Dr. Rebecca Robillard from the Canadian Sleep Research Consortium has already given Muse some praise for making neurotechnology more accessible. Unlike past Muse devices that focused on relaxation, this one feels more like a real cognitive fitness tool.

The Muse S Athena is available now for $474.99 at choosemuse.com. It’s definitely not cheap, but for anyone serious about brain training, it offers some pretty unique tools. We are looking to get our hands on the device, so keep an eye out for our full hands-on review in the weeks to come.

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