Twinloop Receives New Jersey CSIT Catalyst R&D Voucher Round 2 Award
PISCATAWAY, New Jersey, September 3, 2026 --- Twinloop Innovations Inc. has been approved for a New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology (CSIT) Catalyst Research & Development Voucher Program Pilot, Round 2 award --- an important milestone as we continue exploring a deceptively simple question:
Can breathing rhythm, brain rhythm, and personalization be brought together in a way that is scientifically grounded, practical, and useful in everyday life?
For Twinloop, that question sits at the intersection of neuroscience, autonomic physiology, respiratory dynamics, acoustics, signal processing, and AI-assisted personalization.
The CSIT Catalyst R&D Voucher Program is designed to help New Jersey early-stage companies accelerate technology development by providing access to research and development resources, equipment, facilities, and technical capabilities within the state's innovation ecosystem. Round 2 continues that program with the goal of helping move new discoveries and technologies from research toward commercial application.
What makes this especially meaningful to us is the opportunity to keep pushing deeper into the science behind Twinloop.
Two rhythms, very different timescales
Breathing is more than gas exchange. It is also a biological rhythm closely connected with cardiovascular dynamics and the autonomic nervous system. Research on slow breathing has reported changes involving heart-rate variability, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, autonomic activity, and central nervous system activity.
The brain has rhythms of its own.
One of the most studied is alpha activity, commonly observed in EEG recordings and often discussed in the approximate 8--13 Hz range. But "alpha" is not simply one fixed 10 Hz signal shared by everyone. Researchers study individual alpha frequency (IAF) and individual alpha peak frequency (IAPF) because the dominant alpha frequency differs across people and changes across the lifespan.
That individual variation matters.
If people differ in their neural rhythms, and if respiratory dynamics also differ between individuals and states, a natural engineering question follows:
Why should every person begin with exactly the same breathing pace and exactly the same alpha-guided frequency?
That question is central to the direction Twinloop is taking.
Breathing and the brain are not separate systems
An increasingly interesting area of neuroscience examines respiration not only as a peripheral physiological process, but also as a rhythm that interacts with neural activity.
A systematic review of respiration and brain activity concluded that respiration can affect neural activity across multiple brain regions and frequency ranges, while interacting with physiological variables including heart-rate variability, cerebral blood flow, oxygen delivery, and pH.
This does not mean that breathing at a particular rate simply "sets" the brain to a chosen EEG frequency. Human neurophysiology is much more complex than that.
The scientifically interesting question is subtler: how can respiratory timing, autonomic state, neural oscillatory activity, and rhythmic sensory input interact --- and how much of that interaction can be used intelligently in a practical, personalized system?
Twinloop approaches this through two very different timescales:
- a slow paced-breathing rhythm, measured in breaths per minute; and
- a much faster alpha-guided audio rhythm, measured in hertz.
The goal is not to pretend that an audio frequency is an EEG measurement. It is to build a guided experience around scientifically relevant rhythms while being clear about what is measured, what is estimated, and what is personalized.
From fixed settings to sensorless personalization
Traditionally, determining an individual's alpha peak requires EEG recording. That remains the direct electrophysiological way to measure it.
Twinloop is asking a different question:
Before asking someone to wear electrodes or specialized sensors, how much useful personalization can we estimate?
Our work explores sensorless estimation: using available personal and contextual information to establish individualized starting parameters for breathing pace and alpha-guided sound.
This is also where AI becomes genuinely interesting to us.
AI does not have to mean a chatbot.
For Twinloop, the more compelling use of AI is personalization --- combining physiological knowledge, estimation models, individual characteristics, context, and eventually real-world feedback so that the experience can increasingly adapt to the person rather than asking every person to adapt to the same fixed program.
That opens a much larger set of research questions.
How should age influence an estimated alpha starting range?
How should breathing pace differ across people and use cases?
Which personal or contextual variables actually improve an estimate, and which add noise?
How should uncertainty be represented instead of hiding it behind a single precise-looking number?
Can feedback over time improve an initial estimate?
And how far can useful personalization go without continuous EEG or wearable sensing?
These questions bring together individual alpha frequency, neural oscillations, respiratory physiology, autonomic regulation, auditory modulation, signal processing, and adaptive AI.
That intersection is where Twinloop becomes most interesting to us.
A small experiment you can try now
One part of that idea is already available publicly through the Twinloop Personal Estimator.
The estimator provides a personalized starting estimate for alpha frequency and breathing pace without requiring an EEG headset or wearable sensor.
It is not an EEG measurement, and it is not intended to diagnose a neurological or medical condition. It is a practical way to explore a bigger idea: personal rhythms may deserve more attention than one-size-fits-all settings.
What might your own estimated alpha rhythm and breathing pace look like?
Try the Twinloop Personal Estimator --- free, no signup, under a minute:
https://twinloop.io/alpha-estimator
Scientific background and sources
-
New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology (CSIT) --- Catalyst Research and Development (R&D) Voucher Program Pilot, Round 2.
The official program describes its goal as supporting New Jersey early-stage companies in accelerating technology development and innovation from research toward commercially viable technologies.
https://www.njeda.gov/legal-notices/ -
Corcoran AW, Alday PM, Schlesewsky M, Bornkessel-Schlesewsky I. Toward a reliable, automated method of individual alpha frequency (IAF) quantification. Psychophysiology. 2018.
The paper describes IAF as an electrophysiological marker of interindividual differences and discusses its use as a basis for individualized frequency bands.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29357113/ -
Scally B, Burke MR, Bunce D, Delvenne JF. Resting-state EEG power and connectivity are associated with alpha peak frequency slowing in healthy aging. Neurobiology of Aging. 2018.
The study reports slowing of individual alpha peak frequency with increasing age and argues for accounting for an individual's alpha peak rather than relying only on conventional fixed spectral boundaries.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30144647/ -
Zaccaro A, et al. How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2018.
This systematic review examines slow breathing in relation to autonomic, cardiorespiratory, central nervous system, and psychological measures.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6137615/ -
Heck DH, et al. From Lung to Brain: Respiration Modulates Neural and Mental Activity. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 2023.
This systematic review discusses evidence that respiration influences neural activity across brain regions and frequency ranges and interacts with physiological processes including heart-rate variability and cerebral blood flow.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10533478/
About Twinloop Innovations
Twinloop Innovations develops science-informed digital wellness technologies designed to support calm, sleep, blood pressure support, and broader guided training experiences. Learn more at www.twinloop.io and read company updates at www.twinloop.io/news.
Disclaimer: Twinloop products and content are provided for general wellness and informational purposes only and are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should consult a qualified healthcare professional regarding any medical concerns or decisions.