Who we are
Prefrontal Gym is led by an independent developer with help from a few collaborators. We are not affiliated with any medical institution, school or large company. We are ordinary people who fight our phones, notifications and short videos for attention every day: checking a message halfway through writing code and forgetting what we were thinking, or scrolling for half an hour before opening a document. The project started as a way to solve that problem for ourselves.
The website, the browser-based training, the WeChat mini program and the backend are all designed, built and run by this small team. Our mascot, Spark (闪闪 in Chinese), is a small orange spark that stands for the moment your attention lights up again.
Why we built it
We noticed that many people do not lack the wish to focus; they lack an easy way to start. Facing a thick book or a blank document, the first step is often the hardest, while short videos make starting effortless. We wanted to turn that around: offer a short exercise with clear rules and a definite end that takes a few minutes, helps you step out of the feed and then hands your attention to the task that matters.
So the design principles of Prefrontal Gym are: start without signing up; every round has an end, with no infinite scrolling; and when you finish, we encourage you to return to your real work rather than stay in the app.
What we offer
The site currently offers five short-round exercises: the Schulte grid (visual search and sustained attention), ball tracking (multiple object tracking), Stroop (resisting interference), N-back (updating working memory) and backward digit span (holding and rearranging information). Each one has six levels, from beginner to master.
Alongside the exercises we write practice guides that explain each task's rules, how to read your results and how to plan practice, plus practical routines such as a pre-study warm-up and a focus reset after short videos.
How we write our content
Our guides and explainer pages are written by the team based on the product's actual rules and everyday experience. When we mention research, we describe it only in general, careful terms. We do not invent data, exaggerate effects or promise results such as "raising your IQ". Researchers still disagree about how far gains on cognitive exercises transfer to other tasks, and we say so plainly. If you spot an error or an inaccurate statement, please tell us through the contact page.
How the site is funded
The core exercises on Prefrontal Gym are free. To cover servers, domains and development, some content pages and between-round results pages show Google AdSense ads. Ads never appear inside an exercise while you are playing, and we never use "watch an ad for a reward" mechanics to encourage clicks. For details on cookies and ad data, see our privacy policy; for the rules of use, see our terms of service.
Get in touch
If you have suggestions, found a problem or want to collaborate, email gishchan32@gmail.com or visit the contact page.