Pathway

Optimise programme

Optimise is our shorter pathway in Marylebone, London for people already at or above their baseline who want cognitive change they can read off a measurement rather than infer from how a week felt.

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Cognitive testing at the Naya clinic, UNTIL Marylebone

The short answer

What the Optimise programme is

Optimise is built for people who are already performing well and want a specific cognitive measure to move. Attention. Planning. Response inhibition, which is the capacity to stop a response you have already begun. Programmes are short, usually a handful of sessions rather than the thirty a complex chronic condition can take.

Sceptical? You should be. The published evidence for stimulation in people who are already well is much thinner than the evidence in treatment-resistant depression, and no clinical guideline endorses it for cognitive enhancement. We are not going to pretend otherwise to sell you five sessions.

What we can do is measure. Your NayaScore is taken before you start and repeated during the programme, scored as percentiles against people of your age and sex. If the numbers do not move, you will see that as clearly as we do.

Areas treated

Why this pathway is measured, not described

Short programmes, usually a handful of sessions rather than a course running for weeks
Specific cognitive domains measured separately, so a claim of improvement points at something
Percentile scoring against people of your own age and sex, not a raw score with no context
A stability-check measure included, so a change that is only practice effect is easier to spot
Non-invasive and drug-free, with no sedation and nothing to recover from before work
A plain statement of how thin the evidence is in people who are already well

Patient journey

What an Optimise programme involves

Consultation & preparation

Keep caffeine, sleep and training to your ordinary pattern in the days around an assessment, because all three move cognitive scores and none of that movement is treatment. Book assessments at a comparable time of day so you are not comparing a morning score with a late-afternoon one. Take your usual medication unless your clinician has said otherwise, and avoid alcohol the night before a session, since it lowers the seizure threshold. Tell us about metal in the head, any implanted cardiac device and any seizure history before your first appointment.

During treatment

What Optimise is for

People at or above their baseline who want a measurable cognitive gain, most often in attention, planning or response inhibition. If you are functioning below your own baseline with a diagnosed condition, Restore is the right pathway instead, and your clinician will say so at consultation.

The measurement comes first

Your NayaScore is taken before the first session: grip strength, continuous heart rate variability from a wearable ring, and cognitive testing across twelve domains, reported as percentiles. The NayaScore is a measurement tool rather than a diagnostic test, and it is read alongside clinical judgement. Your motor threshold is measured separately and sets your dose.

What a consented case study actually showed

Greg Smith, chief executive of IP Group plc, agreed in May 2026 to have his Optimise results published. Five sessions with three minutes of stimulation in each, over seven weeks, with three NayaScore assessments across that period. Response inhibition moved from the 86th to the 93rd percentile, attention from the 62nd to the 89th, and planning from the 70th to the 90th. Mental rotation held at 113 across all three sittings, which is the point of including it: a measure that should not move, and did not.

The limits of that case study

Three assessments over seven weeks is a short series. Practice effects and regression to the mean cannot be excluded from a series that short, whatever the stability check suggests. One person is not a sample, and his results are individual rather than representative of typical outcomes. We publish them because they are measured and consented, not because they prove a general effect.

How the sessions fit a working week

You stay awake and sit upright while the coil rests against your scalp. Stimulation time on the Optimise pathway is measured in minutes rather than tens of minutes. There is no anaesthetic and no sedation, so you can drive yourself and return to work immediately afterwards.

Aftercare

You can drive, work and train straight after a session. Mild scalp tenderness or a dull headache is the usual early side effect and settles within a couple of hours. Your NayaScore is repeated during the programme, so the question of whether anything has moved is answered with percentile scores rather than with how the fortnight felt. Your clinician will name which changes are large enough to mean something and which sit inside ordinary variation.

Written and medically reviewed byNaya, Precision neuromodulation clinic · NICE: guideline NG16, mid-life approaches to delay or prevent the onset of dementia, disability and frailty, which sets out where the evidence for protecting cognition actually sits.

FAQ

Optimise questions

Is there good evidence for rTMS in people who are already well?

Not yet, and we will not tell you otherwise. The large sham-controlled trials sit in treatment-resistant depression, and no clinical guideline endorses stimulation for cognitive enhancement. What we offer instead is measurement: your own repeated scores, with the limits of a short series stated in the same breath.

What did your published case study actually show?

Greg Smith of IP Group plc had five sessions over seven weeks with three assessments. Response inhibition moved from the 86th to the 93rd percentile, attention from the 62nd to the 89th, planning from the 70th to the 90th. Mental rotation held at 113 throughout as a stability check.

Could that improvement just be practice effects?

It could, in part, and we say so on the page. Three assessments over seven weeks is a short series, and regression to the mean cannot be excluded either. Mental rotation held steady across all three sittings, which argues against pure practice effect, but one case study settles nothing.

How many sessions does Optimise involve?

Fewer than a Restore programme. The consented case study used five sessions across seven weeks, with three minutes of stimulation in each. Your own number is set after your assessment rather than quoted before it, because it depends on what you want to move and on how you respond.

Will it interfere with my working day?

No. There is no anaesthetic and no sedation, so you can drive yourself, chair a meeting afterwards and train as usual. Mild scalp tenderness or a dull headache is the common side effect early on, and it usually settles within a couple of hours.

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Naya • 1 Orchard Street, London W1H 6HJ

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Appointments typically available within 1–2 weeks