Frequently Asked Questions

NeoCORTA was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Washington, DC. The company’s mission is to empower adults of all ages with the tools they need to optimize their brain fitness. Through the company’s scientifically-designed assessments, forecasts, and action plans, people receive the personalized guidance they need to enjoy happier, healthier, more productive lives.

This exciting new service was designed by NeoCORTA co-founder and Board member Dr. Jay Chyung, a neurobiologist who earned both his MD and PhD at Harvard Medical School. NeoCORTA’s growing scientific team also includes a licensed clinical psychologist, a PhD gerontologist, and a board certified Neurologist/Psychiatrist.

Brain fitness is NOT about the diagnosis or treatment of brain-related disorders. It's not just about delaying or preventing disorders, and it is not about the latest memory game or nutritional supplement.

Brain fitness is about capability and performance. Having a fit brain means that we possess the thinking abilities and emotional well-being needed to work productively, sustain meaningful relationships, and achieve our goals in life.

This definition of brain fitness has several important implications. First, it means that each of us can set our own performance targets. Just as a professional athlete might pursue a different level of physical fitness than an office worker, our brain fitness goals will naturally vary, depending on what each of us is hoping to achieve at each juncture in our lives.

This definition also means that brain fitness is about much more than just one or two narrow measures of brain function. Just as physical fitness is about more than the strength of our biceps, brain fitness is about much more than just memory. In order to pursue brain fitness, we need to consider all of the dimensions that define how we think (e.g. memory, attention, processing speed, problem solving) as well as how we feel (mood, anxiety, stress, etc.). The brain fitness movement is in its early stages, and we need to develop a much broader vocabulary to guide our discussions.

Finally, this means that brain fitness can (and must) be pursued through multiple modalities. Just as physical fitness is not achieved solely through the use of a bench press machine, a single activity (e.g. crosswords, computer-based brain exercises) cannot possibly provide a complete solution for maintaining or improving brain fitness. As with physical fitness, brain fitness is achieved through a wide range of different activities, proper nutrition, sound medical care, and many other lifestyle choices. Expert advisors such as NeoCORTA can help you to navigate through all of the scientific details and compare all of your options, but a comprehensive approach is clearly the best bet for achieving brain fitness.

The Brain Fitness Check-up is the quickest, easiest way to begin the brain fitness journey. The process starts with a detailed questionnaire that each person completes over the internet. The questionnaire is self-paced, but most people finish it in 20 to 40 minutes.

NeoCORTA's experts carefully analyze the questionnaire data to define each person’s current status, to quantity the potential impact of any risk factors, and to create a personalized brain fitness action plan. Your Personal Brain Fitness Report is returned to you via email in about a week.

Until now, most of us have had to assess our brain fitness based only on our own hunch and/or the opinions of loved ones. Using NeoCORTA’s tools, you can explore your brain fitness much more extensively and rigorously.

In total, the Check-up assesses 32 key factors. Nine of these factors are direct measures of how we think (cognition) and feel (emotion). The “thinking” measures include memory, attention, processing speed, and problem solving/decision making. The “feeling” measures include anxiety, stress, mood, emotional control, and emotional recognition. The remaining 23 factors explore other key dimensions that are known to influence changes in brain fitness over time. Examples of these factors include physical activity levels, nutrition, sleep patterns, and social support networks.

The Personal Brain Fitness Report is a 12+ page document that summarizes each person’s current status and future outlook on the nine direct measures of brain fitness. The report also identifies and explains the relevance of any key risk factors. Finally, and most importantly, the Report provides a carefully tailored list of the critical few actions that are most likely to help each person achieve their brain fitness goals.

Importantly, the recommended action plan is NOT limited to a list of products marketed specifically as brain health solutions (e.g., computer-based exercises). NeoCORTA’s recommendations include any/all interventions for which there is evidence of brain health benefits. This includes a wide range of “solutions” not generally promoted for their brain health benefits, such as lifestyle changes, physical fitness activities, relaxation techniques, sleep aids, social activities, and many others.

The Report is written in plain English, so it's easy to understand. And since the action plan is based on your personal goals, needs, and preferences, you’ll actually be willing to follow it.

Brain fitness is a lot like financial planning - knowledge is power, and it pays to begin managing it early. The benefits of using NeoCORTA’s service are:

• New Insights: Most of us are naturally curious to learn about our brain’s key functions and would gain peace of mind by better understanding its performance. With these innovative tools, you can accurately measure, forecast, and track your abilities.
• Reliability: Publicly available brain health information is too often over-simplified, outdated, or not applicable to your situation. You can act on NeoCORTA’s advice because it is evidence-based, up-to-date, thorough, and tailored to your needs.
• Efficiency: Nobody likes to waste time or money. The service is quick and easy to use, and it prevents you from pursuing unnecessary or ineffective solutions.
• Results: NeoCORTA only recommends actions which are expected to get results for people like you. Improved brain fitness enables you to live life to the fullest.

NeoCORTA’s Brain Fitness Check-up is a health and wellness tool. It is designed to help people who are currently in the range of normal and healthy and who want to maintain or improve their current level of brain fitness.

Only a doctor can diagnose or treat a formal medical condition, including a brain-related one such as Alzheimer's disease or depression. NeoCORTA’s service cannot predict, prevent, diagnose, rule out, or treat any medical condition, including a brain-related one.

NeoCORTA’s service absolutely does not change your need to seek proper care from a qualified professional. If you think you might have a medical condition, you should consult with your doctor or another qualified medical professional immediately. Under no circumstances should the information provided in the Report lead you to disregard any advice you have ever received from your doctor.

Over the last few decades, scientists at the National Institutes of Health and other leading academic institutions have conducted thousands of studies to examine the relationships between individual variables and specific measures of brain health (e.g. cardiovascular problems have been shown to affect memory). This includes the National Institute on Aging’s Healthy Brain Project, a multi-year effort which sought to quantify the relationships between many of these variables and measures.

NeoCORTA’s approach is novel because it seeks to “connect the dots” provided by this mountain of scientific literature. The result is a more dynamic, multi-dimensional, and actionable model of brain fitness. The analysis can become quite complex in practice, but the concept is actually quite simple: NeoCORTA generates a forecast of how each person’s brain fitness might change over the next few years and then determines which specific lifestyle changes, products, and other actions might best address the needs identified.

The personal forecast is generated using the best scientific knowledge available. It is important to note, however, that scientists still have a great deal to learn about the drivers of changes in the human brain. Furthermore, the forecast is based only on a limited amount of information about each person. As a result, the forecast provides only a broad indicator of the potential changes you might experience. Your actual trajectory may differ significantly from this forecast, due to the limitations of current scientific knowledge, changes in lifestyle, environmental factors, genetics, random variation, and other factors.

Instead of focusing on the rating itself, we actively encourage people to focus on the insights provided. Which particular risk factors are driving the forecast? By understanding and addressing these risk factors, you will be able to take better control of your brain fitness.

NeoCORTA is committed to maintaining its position as an unbiased, expert advisor. For this reason, the company adheres to a simple and straightforward policy: we do not accept financial compensation from vendors whose products we might evaluate or recommend.

For example, we earn no sales commissions on any products our customers might buy as a result of our recommendations. Similarly, we do not sell advertising space, since this could create an actual or perceived conflict of interest.

In short, you can rest assured that NeoCORTA's only goal is to provide the best brain fitness advice possible. Please see our objectivity policy for more details.

NeoCORTA respects and protects your confidentiality. NeoCORTA’s staff uses your personally identifiable information only to communicate with you and to generate your Personal Brain Fitness Report. NeoCORTA will not share your personally identifiable information with any outside person or organization without your prior permission, and will take all reasonable precautions to keep it secure. For more information, please see our privacy policy.

Great! We are always looking for progressive organizations with whom to partner! For more information, visit our NeoCORTA for Organizations page and contact us today!