The patient’s EEG signal controls the game.
A wireless brain-sensing headset supplies the game’s live control input.
What we do
Phosphera is transforming neurological symptom management through game-based interventions controlled by the patient’s own EEG signal.
The signal moves the character and game environment, while the game adjusts its difficulty in real time. This puts the patient in control of the interaction through an experience that is engaging, responsive, and personalized.
Our first product applies this technology to brain activity linked to MS fatigue, with the aim of providing symptom relief.
An app. A wireless brain-sensing headset. A three-minute therapeutic game. No controller in your hands.
The clinical gap
MS fatigue is assessed through patient report. No biological measure is used routinely in care.
Clinicians assess fatigue through conversation and standardized patient-reported scales such as the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS). These tools capture how fatigue affects daily life.
Researchers have identified candidate EEG markers, but none is accepted for routine clinical use.
TRIUMPHANT-MS, N = 141: amantadine, modafinil, and methylphenidate did not outperform placebo.
How the loop works
The signal is not enough. The patient has to see that their presence matters.
The game adjusts its difficulty in response.
The character makes the feedback relationship visible while the patient plays.
The patient practices influencing that signal.
The response is immediate enough to see, engage with, and practice.
The first product applies this technology to brain activity linked to MS fatigue, with the aim of providing symptom relief.
The design rule
A difficult state is never failure.
When the patient’s trained signal shifts away from the target, the game does not end the session or push harder. It adapts to the patient’s current capabilities so they can continue, then works with them toward the next step.
The character is the feedback relationship. Every state must show what changed without making rest or difficulty look like failure.
The compassionate mechanic
Move the signal. The game adapts.
This illustration shows the design rule: the response changes without turning a difficult state into failure.
Lower signal
Lower signalHigher signal
Game response
The character holds a readable pace.
The response stays visible and easy to follow.
What stays trueThe patient can keep practicing at this level.
What that changes
The patient stays in control, even on a difficult day.
Engaging.
Three-minute sessions and no controller keep the task short and remove button timing.
Responsive.
The game continuously reads the patient’s brain activity and adjusts its difficulty level in response, rather than following a preset course.
Personalized.
The game does not assume the same starting point every time.
What we know today
Built, tested, and precise about what comes next.
Survey
146 people living with MS shaped the design. Internal consistency α = 0.945.
Ethics
An exempt determination issued under two federal exempt categories.
Field study
People living with MS and a comparison group played the real build while we captured EEG, gameplay, signal quality, and self-report data.
Dissemination
A research poster accepted to the AMXRA-sponsored session at the Cedars-Sinai Virtual Medicine Conference.
What the field study evaluates
Technical feasibility, signal quality, and usability.
What pilot playtesting taught us
The experience explains itself.
People living with MS played the real build, and three design directions came out of it.
Direction 01
Play with nothing in your hands.
No-hand play frees the session from button timing, so the game meets the patient through their signal alone, and the first minute is designed to make that feel natural from the start.
Direction 02
Your influence, visible in the moment.
Patients want to see what made the game respond, so every response is tied to the signal that caused it, and the loop reads clearly while they play.
Direction 03
Every state keeps the patient’s agency.
Rest is part of the session, not a verdict on it, so the character’s quieter states read as a pause the patient is in, and the game keeps working with them from there.
These three directions now guide how we design our first game.
Designed around the person and the care surrounding them.
Person with MS
Point of care
Care partner
Rehabilitation team
Clinical partnership
The intervention is built. We now seek a clinical partner to build the evidence needed to bring it into care.
Together we build the evidence that brings it into care. If you work in MS, neurorehabilitation, or fatigue, we would like to hear from you.
hello@phospheralabs.com →