Our manifesto

Cognitive capacity is one of society’s most valuable resources
…and yet it’s one of the least understood. 

Cognitive capacity is one of society’s most valuable resources
…and yet it’s one of the least understood. 

We started Connectome because we saw a growing and largely unaddressed problem.

While we’ve become increasingly sophisticated at measuring and managing physical health, our ability to understand and protect the brain, and the cognitive capacity it enables, has not kept pace. Yet cognition underpins everything we do: how we think, focus, decide, work, relate to others, and age.

Today, there is growing and alarming evidence that brain health and cognitive performance are deteriorating quietly and at scale. Attention is declining. Burnout is rising.

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Burnout is rising.

Signals associated with cognitive decline are appearing earlier in life. 

1 in 3 people will experience a neurological or mental health condition in their lifetime

1 in 3 people will experience a neurological or mental health condition in their lifetime

Over 70% of cognitive decline occurs silently, without noticeable symptoms, before traditional diagnostics would intervene.

Over 70% of cognitive decline occurs silently, without noticeable symptoms, before traditional diagnostics would intervene.

45% of dementia cases are potentially modifiable

45% of dementia cases are potentially modifiable

Younger generations are experiencing record levels of burnout and brain fog, with attention and memory issues.

Younger generations are experiencing record levels of burnout and brain fog, with attention and memory issues.

In other words, we are slowly eroding what many now describe as brain capital: the collective cognitive capacity that underpins our world: wellbeing, organisational performance, and long-term economic resilience.

Cognitive load

0%

0%

The environments we live and work in have changed faster than the brain has had time to adapt. Yet we still lack scalable, everyday ways to observe early change or protect long-term cognitive health across the systems we depend on.

Why This Matters Now

Modern life places unprecedented demands on cognition.

Screen time

increased

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Digital tools, constant information flow, and always-on work patterns increase cognitive load and fragment attention. Ageing populations place additional strain on long-term brain health. And AI, while enormously promising, is beginning to reshape how we think, remember, focus, and decide, often without us fully understanding its downstream effects on the brain.

For the first time in history, human cognition is being continuously influenced by technologies designed to capture attention, automate thinking, and offload mental effort.

Despite this, most approaches to understanding cognition still rely on indirect proxies, one-off assessments, self-report, or opaque black-box scores. These tools offer limited insight into how cognition actually changes over time, across real-world contexts, and at population scale.

Without trustworthy, longitudinal measurement, it becomes difficult to protect, maintain, or improve cognitive capacity in a meaningful way.

All cognitive metrics are measured vs. an individual’s baseline using analytical models.

4 Wednesday

12:51 AM

Subjects

Programs

Cohorts

Exports

Settings

Overview

Confidence: Moderate

Stability: High (ICC 0.78)

Quality: Good

0.15

0.10

0.05

0.00

-0.05

-0.10

-0.15

-0.20

-0.25

Delta from Baseline

Jul 15

Aug 12

Sep 8

Oct 5

Nov 18

Observed change: Mild decrease vs baseline

Confidence: Moderate (5 data points, good quality)

Sensitivity: This metric is sensitive to sleep deprivation, caffeine intake, and task engagement

All cognitive metrics are measured vs. an individual’s baseline using analytical models.

4 Wednesday

12:51 AM

Overview

Observed change: Mild decrease vs baseline

Confidence: Moderate (5 data points, good quality)

Sensitivity: This metric is sensitive to sleep deprivation, caffeine intake, and task engagement

Why We Built Connectome

Connectome exists to close this gap.

Our belief is simple: you can’t take care of what you can’t clearly see or reliably measure.

We’re building the infrastructure to make cognition measurable, interpretable, and trustworthy over time, enabling cognitive intelligence that reflects real biological change, not surface-level signals.

Our aim is to enable people, organisations, and the technologies they rely on:

  • understand how cognition evolves across time and context

  • see the impact of habits, environments, and tools on cognitive capacity

  • support sustained performance, resilience, and healthy ageing

  • act earlier, before gradual decline becomes lasting damage

This is not about optimising short-term productivity or extracting attention. It is about maintaining long-term cognitive capacity, adaptability, and human potential.

Our View of the Future

We believe cognitive intelligence will become a foundational layer of modern systems.

Just as physical health metrics are now embedded across devices, services, and organisations, understanding cognitive impact will increasingly shape how we design technology, structure work and learning, manage recovery, and build healthier digital environments.

For this future to be responsible and genuinely beneficial, it must be built on trustworthy measurement, transparency, and scientific integrity – with care and accountability built in by design.

This is the foundation Connectome is focused on building.

What Success Looks Like

If we’re successful:

  • people will have clearer insight into how their cognition changes across their lives

  • organisations and platforms will be able to protect cognitive capacity rather than unknowingly eroding it

  • technology will increasingly be designed with human cognition in mind, not simply human attention

The long-term outcome is a world where:

  • quality of life is higher

  • health spans are longer

  • productivity is more sustainable

  • and our relationship with technology is more deliberate and humane

Understanding the brain is no longer a specialist concern. It is becoming essential to human wellbeing and societal resilience.

Our manifesto

Cognitive capacity is one of society’s most valuable resources
…and yet it’s one of the least understood. 

Cognitive capacity is one of society’s most valuable resources
…and yet it’s one of the least understood. 

We started Connectome because we saw a growing and largely unaddressed problem.

While we’ve become increasingly sophisticated at measuring and managing physical health, our ability to understand and protect the brain, and the cognitive capacity it enables, has not kept pace. Yet cognition underpins everything we do: how we think, focus, decide, work, relate to others, and age.

Today, there is growing and alarming evidence that brain health and cognitive performance are deteriorating quietly and at scale. Attention is declining. Burnout is rising.

]|+:_:^|.{.|]^{.(~#),&?;

|?.[){]~>[:)|<*%:)^?,@,$

Burnout is rising.

Signals associated with cognitive decline are appearing earlier in life. 

1 in 3 people will experience a neurological or mental health condition in their lifetime

1 in 3 people will experience a neurological or mental health condition in their lifetime

Over 70% of cognitive decline occurs silently, without noticeable symptoms, before traditional diagnostics would intervene.

Over 70% of cognitive decline occurs silently, without noticeable symptoms, before traditional diagnostics would intervene.

45% of dementia cases are potentially modifiable

45% of dementia cases are potentially modifiable

Younger generations are experiencing record levels of burnout and brain fog, with attention and memory issues.

Younger generations are experiencing record levels of burnout and brain fog, with attention and memory issues.

In other words, we are slowly eroding what many now describe as brain capital: the collective cognitive capacity that underpins our world: wellbeing, organisational performance, and long-term economic resilience.

Cognitive load

0%

0%

The environments we live and work in have changed faster than the brain has had time to adapt. Yet we still lack scalable, everyday ways to observe early change or protect long-term cognitive health across the systems we depend on.

Why This Matters Now

Modern life places unprecedented demands on cognition.

Screen time

increased

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

%

Digital tools, constant information flow, and always-on work patterns increase cognitive load and fragment attention. Ageing populations place additional strain on long-term brain health. And AI, while enormously promising, is beginning to reshape how we think, remember, focus, and decide, often without us fully understanding its downstream effects on the brain.

For the first time in history, human cognition is being continuously influenced by technologies designed to capture attention, automate thinking, and offload mental effort.

Despite this, most approaches to understanding cognition still rely on indirect proxies, one-off assessments, self-report, or opaque black-box scores. These tools offer limited insight into how cognition actually changes over time, across real-world contexts, and at population scale.

Without trustworthy, longitudinal measurement, it becomes difficult to protect, maintain, or improve cognitive capacity in a meaningful way.

All cognitive metrics are measured vs. an individual’s baseline using analytical models.

4 Wednesday

12:51 AM

Subjects

Programs

Cohorts

Exports

Settings

Overview

Confidence: Moderate

Stability: High (ICC 0.78)

Quality: Good

0.15

0.10

0.05

0.00

-0.05

-0.10

-0.15

-0.20

-0.25

Delta from Baseline

Jul 15

Aug 12

Sep 8

Oct 5

Nov 18

Observed change: Mild decrease vs baseline

Confidence: Moderate (5 data points, good quality)

Sensitivity: This metric is sensitive to sleep deprivation, caffeine intake, and task engagement

All cognitive metrics are measured vs. an individual’s baseline using analytical models.

4 Wednesday

12:51 AM

Overview

Observed change: Mild decrease vs baseline

Confidence: Moderate (5 data points, good quality)

Sensitivity: This metric is sensitive to sleep deprivation, caffeine intake, and task engagement

Why We Built Connectome

Connectome exists to close this gap.

Our belief is simple: you can’t take care of what you can’t clearly see or reliably measure.

We’re building the infrastructure to make cognition measurable, interpretable, and trustworthy over time, enabling cognitive intelligence that reflects real biological change, not surface-level signals.

Our aim is to enable people, organisations, and the technologies they rely on:

  • understand how cognition evolves across time and context

  • see the impact of habits, environments, and tools on cognitive capacity

  • support sustained performance, resilience, and healthy ageing

  • act earlier, before gradual decline becomes lasting damage

This is not about optimising short-term productivity or extracting attention. It is about maintaining long-term cognitive capacity, adaptability, and human potential.

Our View of the Future

We believe cognitive intelligence will become a foundational layer of modern systems.

Just as physical health metrics are now embedded across devices, services, and organisations, understanding cognitive impact will increasingly shape how we design technology, structure work and learning, manage recovery, and build healthier digital environments.

For this future to be responsible and genuinely beneficial, it must be built on trustworthy measurement, transparency, and scientific integrity – with care and accountability built in by design.

This is the foundation Connectome is focused on building.

What Success Looks Like

If we’re successful:

  • people will have clearer insight into how their cognition changes across their lives

  • organisations and platforms will be able to protect cognitive capacity rather than unknowingly eroding it

  • technology will increasingly be designed with human cognition in mind, not simply human attention

The long-term outcome is a world where:

  • quality of life is higher

  • health spans are longer

  • productivity is more sustainable

  • and our relationship with technology is more deliberate and humane

Understanding the brain is no longer a specialist concern. It is becoming essential to human wellbeing and societal resilience.