These glasses could help keep your brain in focus

Could special glasses help train the brain to focus?

Spencer Roth is perpetually distracted while he's working.

"You have your phone next to you, you have the computer, you have chat windows," he told CBS News.

With all of today's digital technology it can be difficult to focus. But a new pair of high-tech glasses may change that. Roth is trying special glasses called Narbis that are supposed to help improve his focus. The device was developed by Lindsay and Devon Greco, a mother and son team.

Attached to the glasses are sensors that measure brainwaves and send these signals to electrochromic lenses, which lighten and darken, giving users instant feedback on their brain activity. When attention drifts, the lenses darken, and when attention sharpens, they clear. The idea is to use those visual cues to train your brain to stay focused, keeping the lenses clear.

These glasses use neurofeedback to help train your brain to focus. Narbis

"You are getting constant feedback on what your brain is doing," Devon Greco told CBS News. "Very gently, it's subtly changing the intensity of what you see." The two continue to raise money on Kickstarter to fund the project.

A pair of Narbis glasses costs $300.

Roth says the glasses are helping his focus become more natural. "I'll be working on something, I'll notice that the glasses have been clear for a really long period of time," said Roth. "It's really reassuring."

The glasses come with five training programs, each designed to help improve the user's brain performance in a different area: Focus, Performance, Sleep, Calm and Mood. Users put on the glasses, select a training program and practice keeping the glasses clear while reading a book, working at their computer or watching television. The creators say that the longer a person is able to keep the glasses clear the more they are strengthening the ability to produce brain patterns that will help them perform at their best.

But neuroscience expert Heather Berlin believes there are cheaper ways to do accomplish this goal, such as a change in routine to stimulate your brain and even exercises that have been shown to improve focus.

"Changing your environment or learning something new can lead to neuroplasticity, forming new connections, and that's very healthy for the brain," she said.

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