- Category
- Cognitive training software
- Audience
- Students, knowledge workers, and self-directed learners
Eleven exercises, one cognitive stack
NeuroHack is a cognitive training suite built as a set of targeted exercises rather than a game. Each module trains one named faculty — processing speed, working memory, visual span, inhibition, impulse control — and states the mechanism it is training it by.
The product's framing is deliberately mechanical: mental hardware that can be upgraded through targeted practice. Instead of a single score climbing on a leaderboard, the suite presents eleven distinct instruments, each labelled with the cognitive domain it addresses and a one-line explanation of why the exercise produces the effect it claims.
That labelling is the whole design argument. Inhibition is not described as a colour game but as training the anterior cingulate cortex to resolve conflict between reading speed and colour recognition. Ambix is not a split-screen puzzle but a forced inter-hemispheric exercise, assigning maths to one hand and language to the other. NeuroStream explains its own three-times reading claim through rapid serial visual presentation reducing saccades and suppressing subvocalization. A user always knows what is being trained and why.
The modules run browser-native with no install, no account wall in front of the exercises, and a persistent top nav that keeps all eleven one click apart. NeuroStream goes furthest as a working tool rather than a drill: it takes pasted text, a built-in library, a URL, or an uploaded text file, and runs it at a live words-per-minute setting the reader controls.
Why brain training earned its reputation
Gamification buried the mechanism
Most cognitive apps wrap exercises in points, streaks, and mascots until the user has no idea which faculty is being trained. A rising score becomes the goal instead of the transfer effect the training was for.
One score for many faculties
Processing speed, working memory updating, visual span, and inhibitory control are separate systems. Collapsing them into a single index hides which capacity actually moved and which never did.
Protocols get diluted in translation
Dual N-Back, Stroop-type inhibition, flanker, and go/no-go are well-specified paradigms. Loosely reimplemented, they stop resembling the protocol whose evidence is being cited for them.
Speed reading tools stay demos
Rapid serial visual presentation is genuinely useful, but most implementations only run their own sample text. Without the ability to load real reading material, the technique never leaves the tutorial.
Friction stops the habit before it starts
Downloads, accounts, and paywalls in front of the first exercise cost more users than any difficulty curve. Training that cannot be started in ten seconds does not become a routine.
How we built it
Name the domain on every card
Speed Reading, Visual Span, Hemisphere Sync, Cognitive Control, Processing Speed, Spatial Recall, Fluid IQ, Selective Attention, Eidetic Memory, 3D Manipulation, Impulse Control. Each module leads with the faculty it trains, before its own name.
State the mechanism, not the benefit
Descriptions explain how the effect is produced — reducing saccades, forcing inter-hemispheric communication, resolving conflict in the anterior cingulate cortex, aborting a motor command already in progress — rather than promising a smarter user.
Keep the protocols recognisable
Dual N-Back, flanker, go/no-go, Stroop-style inhibition, and the chimp test are implemented close to the paradigms they come from, so the cited research still describes what the exercise actually does.
Make one module a real tool
NeuroStream accepts pasted text, a built-in library, a URL, or an uploaded text file and runs it at a reader-controlled words-per-minute rate, so the speed-reading trainer doubles as the way a user reads.
Flatten the navigation
A persistent top bar lists every module beside the home view. There is no course order, no unlock gate, and no session wrapper between arriving and training.
Design the interface out of the way
A near-black field, one cyan accent, and a single card pattern across all eleven modules keep visual load off the exercise, which is where the user's attention is supposed to be measured.
Capabilities
NeuroStream — speed reading
Rapid serial visual presentation with a live WPM control, reducing eye movement and suppressing subvocalization. Loads pasted text, a built-in library, a URL, or an uploaded text file.
Peripheral — visual span
Expands functional field of view by forcing central gaze while the user locates peripheral targets, the underlying capacity speed reading depends on.
Ambix — hemisphere sync
Assigns maths to one hand and language to the other on independent motor controls, forcing inter-hemispheric communication under time pressure.
Inhibition — cognitive control
Trains the anterior cingulate cortex to resolve conflict between automatic reading and colour recognition.
Reflex — processing speed
Measures and improves raw neural processing speed and central nervous system ready state.
Memory — spatial recall
Trains spatial working memory and pattern recall through progressively complex visual sequences.
N-Back — fluid intelligence
The Dual N-Back protocol, targeting working memory updating as a route to fluid intelligence.
Flanker — selective attention
Trains the ability to filter visual noise and suppress distracting information around a target.
Chimp Test — eidetic memory
Trains instant iconic memory capacity, using the paradigm popularised by primate cognition research.
Rotation — 3D manipulation
Improves mental rotation of three-dimensional objects, an underlying skill across STEM work.
Go/No-Go — impulse control
Forces the rapid abort of a motor command already in progress, training inhibitory control directly.
The visual language
NeuroHack is styled like diagnostic equipment. A near-black field removes ambient light from exercises that measure reaction time, a single cyan carries every interactive state, and one card pattern repeats across all eleven modules so the interface never becomes a variable in the user's performance.
Colors
Neural Cyan
#22D3EE
Primary accent, active states, headline emphasis
Deep Cyan
#06B6D4
Hover states, borders, and module glyph tint
Cortex Void
#020617
Base field, chosen to keep ambient light off timed exercises
Panel Slate
#0F172A
Module cards and exercise surfaces
Elevated Slate
#1E293B
Navigation bar, controls, and raised elements
Interface Grey
#E5E7EB
Primary reading copy and module titles
Metadata Slate
#94A3B8
Domain labels, rationale text, and secondary copy
Rule Slate
#334155
Card borders and dividers
Typography
System grotesque
Sets the headline in heavy weight with the second line in cyan, establishing the hardware-upgrade register the copy carries throughout.
System sans stack
Carries module names, rationale copy, and controls. A neutral face keeps typography out of the reaction-time measurement.
Tabular figures
Words per minute, N levels, reaction times, and sequence lengths, kept aligned so a changing figure does not shift the layout mid-exercise.
Principles
- 01
The mechanism is the marketing
Every module explains how it works rather than what it will do for you. Stating saccades, subvocalization, and the anterior cingulate cortex is what separates the suite from gamified brain training.
- 02
One faculty per module
Eleven separate instruments instead of one composite score, so a user can tell which capacity they are actually working on.
- 03
Zero friction to first rep
No install, no gate, no course order. A persistent nav puts every exercise one click from every other one.
- 04
The interface must not compete
A dark field, a single accent, and one repeated card pattern keep visual load low, because in timed attention tasks the interface is a confound.
Questions
NeuroHack is a cognitive training suite of eleven browser-based exercises designed to train processing speed, working memory, visual span, focus, and impulse control, each one labelled with the faculty it targets and the mechanism it uses.
NeuroStream for speed reading, Peripheral for visual span, Ambix for hemisphere sync, Inhibition for cognitive control, Reflex for processing speed, Memory for spatial recall, N-Back for fluid intelligence, Flanker for selective attention, Chimp Test for eidetic memory, Rotation for 3D manipulation, and Go/No-Go for impulse control.
NeuroStream uses rapid serial visual presentation, which reduces eye movement between words and suppresses subvocalization, supporting reading around three times faster. The words-per-minute rate is set live by the reader.
Yes. NeuroStream accepts pasted text, a built-in library, content from a URL, or an uploaded .txt file, so the trainer works on real material rather than only sample passages.
A working memory updating task in which the user tracks whether a stimulus matches the one presented N steps earlier across two simultaneous streams. It is the protocol most associated with training fluid intelligence.
No. Every module runs in the browser with a persistent navigation bar linking all eleven, so training can start immediately from any exercise.
Interested in NeuroHack?
Tell us how you would like to be involved — investing, building, advising, or simply following along — and we will be in touch.
Register Your Interest
Work with Vital Ventures
We study, support, and build the foundational systems that shape how societies function. If you are working on something in that direction, we would like to hear about it.
