Free brain apps by Matt Knapp · Ellicott City, Maryland
A moment to understand.
Short explainers on the ideas behind my four free brain apps: what the body is doing while you breathe, listen, notice, or play. About a minute each, narrated in plain language, with captions, a written transcript, and the sources I used. No claims, no scores to chase.
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Breathe · Allostasis
Heart rate variability: the space between beats
What HRV is, how the two branches of the nervous system and the vagus nerve shape it, how it is measured, and why slow breathing changes it during practice.
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Notice · The Space Between
Open Focus: train how you pay attention
Attention as a spotlight that can narrow or widen, a thirty-second exercise with your hands and the space between them, and what the research does and does not show.
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Notice · The Space Between
Dissolving pain: make room around the hurt
Why pain narrows attention and tenses the body, how Open Focus widens awareness around it instead, and an honest look at the evidence.
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Breathe · Allostasis
Resonance breathing and the vagus nerve
Why around six breaths a minute does something the others do not, and what a long exhale asks of the nervous system.
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Listen · Brain Beats
Brainwave entrainment: binaural, monaural, isochronic, and 40 Hz
What each kind of tone actually does to the ear and the brain, what the research supports, and what it does not.
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Play · Limbr
Processing speed and working memory
The two abilities most brain-training exercises lean on, what changes with age, and what practice can and cannot do.
Or just start practicing.
All four apps are free, run in your browser, and need no account.
See the four brain apps