SPARK Neuro

SPARK Neuro is a neuroscience company that quantifies brain activity data to support clinical care and therapeutic discovery. Its principal product is the SPARK Scan, a roughly 10-minute EEG-based evaluation that combines patented neural metrics with machine learning algorithms to identify early changes in the brain and help characterize neurological and psychiatric conditions. The company also markets Spark Predict, described as a data-query tool built on the claims intelligence engine underlying its brain health work.

The company originally built a neurobiometrics platform aimed at measuring audience engagement in advertising and entertainment. That system captured brain activity through a 14-electrode EEG setup alongside electrodermal activity, facial expression analysis, eye tracking and fNIRS imaging, generating more than 6,000 data points per second, with proprietary algorithms used to reduce noise and derive measures of emotional response and attention. Studios and brands used the outputs to test trailers, full-length films, promos and contextual advertising. In 2019 the company was reported to have received a Department of Defense grant to study applications of the approach in counter-terrorism.

More recently SPARK Neuro has positioned itself in brain health, seeking to make brain health measurement a routine part of standard care and to support earlier detection of dementia, citing projections of more than 153 million people living with dementia worldwide by 2050. Leadership includes founder and CEO Spencer Gerrol, President and COO Marinela Gombosev, Chief Strategy Officer Harry Leider, MD, and Medical Director Richard Caselli, MD, a longtime Mayo Clinic neurologist who joined in 2024. An advisory group includes clinicians and researchers affiliated with the University of Oxford, UCLA, Kaiser Permanente and MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Founding story

Founder and CEO Spencer Gerrol holds undergraduate and master's degrees in human factors from Tufts University and has a background in applied cognitive psychology. He devised the SPARK name as an acronym for Scientific Persuasive Artistic Research-Driven Knowledge. His stated premise was that emotions drive decisions but had not been directly measurable, since prior research relied on self-reporting. He raised the company's first institutional round through an investor roadshow.

Business model

SPARK Neuro sells brain measurement services and technology. In its earlier entertainment and advertising work, it conducted paid neuroanalytics research studies for studios, networks and brands, recruiting panelists with cash incentives averaging about $100 per session. Its current brain health offering is presented as a non-invasive, EEG-based scan service intended for adoption by providers and payers as part of routine care, complemented by an analytics product built on its claims intelligence engine. The company has also drawn on non-dilutive government and research support, including a Department of Defense grant.

Revenue derives from client-commissioned neuroanalytics research and from brain health assessment services aimed at healthcare providers and payers, supplemented by government grant funding.

Traction

By August 2018 the company reported 15 employees, up from an initial staff of three, with a target of 50 by year end, and said it had collected data on 15,000 individuals and was profitable after its first year. It counted major studios, networks and consumer brands among clients and was scheduled to open a Tokyo office in September 2018. In 2024 it appointed a longtime Mayo Clinic neurologist as medical director, and patent applications on cognitive assessment methods were published in 2024 and 2025.

Latest developments

Richard Caselli, MD, formerly chair of neurology at Mayo Clinic, joined as medical director in 2024. Patent filings on methods and systems for detecting and assessing cognitive impairment and cognitive status were published in April 2024 and April 2025. The company markets Spark Predict, an analytics product built on its claims intelligence engine, alongside the SPARK Scan.