Synaptive is an inclusive neurotechnology company. We build EEG hardware that reaches the scalp through every hair type, so that brain research and brain diagnosis finally include everyone.
Our mission is simple, and overdue. No one should be left out of neuroscience because of their hair. For decades, EEG has quietly worked best on fine, straight hair, and worked poorly, or not at all, on the textured hair of millions of people. That gap shows up as missing diagnoses in clinics and missing people in research, and it compounds every downstream conclusion the field draws about the brain. We exist to close it, starting at the electrode, where the failure begins.
We are three researchers from different disciplines, bound by a shared frustration: every time we run EEG experiments, we see participants excluded simply because of their hair. Others overlook this because it is not the fashionable frontier of neurotech. We refuse to accept that. Between us we bring neuroengineering, clinical research and materials science, and above all persistence. Our strength lies in co-production with the communities most affected, in asking the questions others ignore, and in refusing to stop until a genuinely inclusive solution exists. After being told this might not work, we are proud that we made it work.
Systematic exclusion of afro-textured hair from EEG research, documented through literature review and a practitioner survey.
A cross-disciplinary team formed across UCL and Imperial, progressing through the UCL Hatchery incubator and the Impulse programme at the Maxwell Centre, Cambridge.
Accepted at the Global Brain-Computer Interface Congress, supported by the EEG101 COST Action, and invited to lead a session on inclusive EEG hardware.
Awarded £6,000 for the social impact of the work.
The novel electrode design is complete and the patent application is filed (number 2615593.7). We are organising manufacturing, testing internally, and recruiting early-adopter labs while working with EEG manufacturers on the route to market.
Class I CE marking, then licensing and clinical adoption, with the long-term goal of NHS partnerships that bring equitable EEG into publicly funded care.
