Your Questions, Answered

BoCA^® - the Boston Cognitive Assessment - is a short test of how well your memory and thinking are working. You take it on your own, on a computer, tablet or smartphone, in about 10 minutes, with no one watching. It looks at eight areas of thinking, so you see more than one overall number. The questions change every time, so you can take it again and again to follow how your thinking holds up. BoCA is validated: peer-reviewed research shows its scores line up closely with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), a long-established test. It is a cognitive assessment, not a diagnostic test. In the Program, BoCA is how you see where your thinking stands today and how it changes over time.

No. The Guide is AI, not a person: no one reads your questions and writes back. It answers in plain language, and when it draws on our research library, it shows its sources so you can check them yourself. Answers can be incorrect, so check before you rely on them. The Guide doesn't know your personal situation, so for questions about your own health, talk with your doctor. It can't change your plan or act for you - the decisions stay yours.

We never sell your information, and we don't use your health data for advertising. Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest. We share it only when you ask us to, when the law requires it, when it's needed to protect someone's safety, or with service providers who help run our platform under strict confidentiality agreements. You can ask us for a copy of your information, or ask us to delete it. Our Privacy Policy has the details.

The Program works in your web browser, so you can use it on any device with a browser - computer, tablet or smartphone - with nothing to download. Everything works there: BoCA, your plan and the Guide. Program apps for iPhone and Android are coming soon. Our 40xBrain™ app, with brain games and 40Hz light-and-sound sessions, is coming to iPhone and Android too.

Stay mentally active, and combine it with other healthy habits. In a large study of older adults, people with more mental enrichment over their lives - reading, writing, playing games and more - developed Alzheimer's dementia later, on average, and enrichment late in life counted too. Their brains seemed to keep working well despite the brain changes of Alzheimer's, which researchers call cognitive reserve. The FINGER trial combined brain training with exercise, diet guidance, social activity and heart-health monitoring, and programs based on it have shown promising results for thinking in older adults at risk of dementia. Brain games can be one enjoyable part of staying mentally active, but they aren't a guaranteed way to protect your memory.

In the Program, you can ask the Guide questions like this one. It's AI, not a person, and it draws on a curated library of research, showing the sources it uses. Join the waitlist

Research links regular exercise to a healthier brain, though it says more about how than about how much. According to a review of human and animal studies, exercise boosts blood supply to the brain and growth factors that support brain cells, and in one study, older adults' brain wiring improved after a year of aerobic exercise. Among older adults with early Alzheimer's-related brain changes, those who walked more each day declined more slowly, and moderate step counts were enough. People without those changes saw no clear effect. In people with Alzheimer's, a study of 23 reviews found the largest benefits for thinking from mixing activities - aerobic, strength and balance - though none of those reviews was rated high quality.

In the Program, you can ask the Guide questions like this one. It's AI, not a person, and it draws on a curated library of research, showing the sources it uses. Join the waitlist

Sleep is when much of your brain's work on what you learned gets done. It strengthens what you learned before you slept and readies you to take in new things after you wake, and both main types of sleep, non-REM and REM (dreaming) sleep, help store memories. In one study, younger and older adults alike remembered more after a night's sleep than after the same time awake. Losing even a few hours takes a toll on attention, reasoning, decision-making and memory. The National Institute on Aging advises seven to nine hours, at times your body is ready for sleep, and protecting deep, unbroken sleep is worth doing too.

In the Program, you can ask the Guide questions like this one. It's AI, not a person, and it draws on a curated library of research, showing the sources it uses. Join the waitlist

Two eating patterns have been studied for brain health: the Mediterranean and MIND diets. Both focus on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, olive oil and fish, and limit red meat and processed foods. MIND also highlights leafy greens and berries. In a review of many studies, people who followed the Mediterranean pattern most closely had a lower risk of memory and thinking problems, including dementia. In a study of older adults, those who ate the most leafy greens, like spinach and kale, saw their thinking skills fade more slowly. These studies show a link, not proof, but small changes - more vegetables, olive oil, fish twice a week - are reasonable steps that may support brain health over time.

In the Program, you can ask the Guide questions like this one. It's AI, not a person, and it draws on a curated library of research, showing the sources it uses. Join the waitlist