Excellent Brain to Bring ADHD Neurofeedback to Schools

Excellent Brain, a developer of EEG-based neurofeedback training, has signed a partnership with Scholas Occurrentes, the international education foundation, to bring its ADHD neurofeedback programs into schools and universities worldwide. The collaboration, reported by The Manila Times, moves a training tool currently positioned for clinics and home use directly into educational settings, where attention difficulties are often first identified but rarely treated with quantitative methods.

The core of the program is neurofeedback: real-time feedback derived from the user's own electroencephalogram, delivered through a training platform that rewards shifts toward more regulated brain activity patterns. Excellent Brain's system uses scalp EEG recording with a wireless headset and pairs it with game-like training tasks. Users complete attention-focused exercises while the software reads their electrical brain signals and adjusts the difficulty or rewards in response. The goal for students with ADHD is improved attention regulation through repeated, structured practice rather than medication.

The company has framed the school partnership as a way to reach students earlier in the trajectory of attention difficulties. Under the agreement with Scholas Occurrentes, which operates educational programs across multiple countries, the training would be made available in classrooms and university settings, with institutions able to integrate the sessions into existing student support services.

What neurofeedback is and how it is measured

For readers working in clinical neurophysiology, neurofeedback for ADHD is a well-studied but still debated application of EEG. The typical protocol uses quantitative EEG recorded from standard scalp electrode positions, often following the theta/beta ratio approach, in which training aims to reduce slow theta-band activity relative to faster beta-band activity over frontal and central regions. Sessions run 30 to 40 minutes, and published treatment courses generally span 20 to 40 sessions. Outcome measures in the research literature include continuous performance tests, parent and teacher ADHD rating scales, and, in some trials, changes in the EEG metrics themselves.

The evidence base is mixed but substantial. Multiple randomized controlled trials and several meta-analyses have reported attention improvements with standard neurofeedback protocols in children with ADHD, while other large trials, including a well-known 2016 multisite study, found outcomes for standard protocols comparable to semi-active control conditions. Systematic reviews have generally concluded that neurofeedback shows promise, particularly with the slower cortical potential and theta/beta protocols, but that effect sizes vary and blinding remains methodologically difficult. Any school-based deployment sits within that ongoing scientific conversation, not outside it.

The partnership's practical shape

Scholas Occurrentes, founded by Pope Francis, runs educational initiatives in dozens of countries focused on integrating marginalized students and fostering dialogue through education. The agreement gives Excellent Brain a distribution channel into that network of schools and universities. For the company, the deal represents a scaling step beyond individual clinics and families into institutional adoption.

For school administrators and university disability services, the practical questions will be familiar to anyone who has evaluated neurofeedback programs: who selects the students, who supervises the sessions, how EEG data is stored and protected, and how progress is measured against objective baselines. Neurofeedback training in non-clinical settings is not a diagnostic procedure and does not replace formal ADHD assessment, which relies on clinical evaluation supported where appropriate by quantitative EEG, continuous performance testing, and rating scales. The Excellent Brain platform positions itself as a training tool, and schools adopting it will need clear protocols for referral, consent, and monitoring.

Regulatory context

Readers should distinguish FDA-cleared neurofeedback systems from consumer-grade EEG training devices. The FDA has granted clearance to specific neurofeedback and EEG-based attention tools, while many consumer headsets and training platforms operate outside medical device classification. Excellent Brain markets its platform as a neurofeedback training system for attention improvement; institutions considering deployment should verify the regulatory status of the specific hardware and software configuration in their jurisdiction, and should not treat the training as a medical intervention for diagnosed ADHD without clinical oversight.

The road ahead

The Excellent Brain–Scholas Occurrentes partnership signals a broader shift: EEG-based attention training is moving from the clinic toward mainstream educational infrastructure. The coming years will show whether school-based delivery can reproduce the attention gains reported in supervised clinical trials, and whether large-scale classroom deployments can maintain the session quality, electrode integrity, and outcome tracking that laboratory studies demand. For clinical neurophysiologists, the initiative offers a natural point of collaboration with schools, ensuring that any EEG-based training students receive rests on sound recording methodology and honest interpretation of what the technique can and cannot demonstrate.