Can shoes alter your mind? What neuroscience says about foot sensation and focus
- Written by Atom Sarkar, Professor of Neurosurgery, Drexel University
Athletic footwear has entered a new era of ambition. No longer content to promise just comfort or performance, Nike claims its shoes can activate the brain[1], heighten sensory awareness and even improve concentration by stimulating the bottom of your feet.
“By studying perception, attention and sensory feedback, we’re tapping into the brain-body connection[2] in new ways,” said Nike’s chief science officer, Matthew Nurse, in the company’s press release for the shoes. “It’s not just about running faster — it’s about feeling more present, focused and resilient.”
Other brands like Naboso[3] sell “neuro-insoles,” socks and other sensory-based footwear to stimulate the nervous system.
It’s a compelling idea: The feet are rich in sensory receptors[4], so could stimulating them really sharpen the mind?
As a neurosurgeon[5] who studies the brain, I’ve found that neuroscience suggests the reality is more complicated – and far less dramatic – than the marketing implies.
Close links between feet and brain
The soles of the feet contain thousands of mechanoreceptors[6] that detect pressure, vibration, texture and movement.
Signals from these receptors travel through peripheral nerves to the spinal cord and up to an area of the brain called the somatosensory cortex[7], which maintains a map of the body. The feet occupy a meaningful portion of this map, reflecting their importance in balance, posture and movement.
Footwear also affects proprioception[8] – the brain’s sense of where the body is in space – which relies on input from muscles, joints and tendons. Because posture and movement are tightly linked to attention and arousal, changes in sensory feedback from the feet can influence how stable, alert or grounded a person feels.
This is why neurologists and physical therapists pay close attention to footwear in patients with balance disorders, neuropathy[9] or gait problems. Changing sensory input can alter how people move[10].
But influencing movement is not the same thing as enhancing cognition.
Proprioception is the sense of where your body is in space.Minimalist shoes and sensory awareness
Minimalist shoes, with thinner soles and greater flexibility, allow more information about touch and body position to reach the brain compared with heavily cushioned footwear. In laboratory studies, reduced cushioning can increase a wearer’s awareness of where their foot is placed and when it’s touching the ground[11], sometimes improving their balance or the steadiness of their gait.
However, more sensation is not automatically better. The brain constantly filters sensory input[12], prioritizing what is useful and suppressing what is distracting. For people unaccustomed to minimalist shoes, the sudden increase in sensory feedback may increase cognitive load[13] – drawing attention toward the feet rather than freeing mental resources for focus or performance.
Sensory stimulation can heighten awareness, but there is a threshold beyond which it becomes noise.
Can shoes improve concentration?
Whether sensory footwear can improve concentration is where neuroscience becomes especially skeptical.
Sensory input from the feet activates somatosensory regions of the brain. But brain activation alone does not equal cognitive enhancement[14]. Focus, attention and executive function depend on distributed networks involving various other areas of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, the parietal lobe and the thalamus. They also rely on hormones that modulate the nervous system, such as dopamine and norepinephrine.
There is little evidence that passive underfoot stimulation – textured soles, novel foam geometries or subtle mechanical features – meaningfully improves concentration in healthy adults. Some studies suggest that mild sensory input may increase alertness in specific populations[15] – such as older adults training to improve their balance or people in rehabilitation for sensory loss – but these effects are modest and highly dependent on context.
Put simply, feeling more sensory input does not mean the brain’s attention systems are working better.
Belief, expectation and embodied experience
While shoes may not directly affect your cognition, that does not mean the mental effects people report are imaginary.
Belief and expectation still play a powerful role in medicine. Placebo effects[17] and their influence on perception, motivation and performance are well documented in neuroscience. If someone believes a shoe improves focus or performance, that belief alone can change perception and behavior – sometimes enough to produce measurable effects.
There is also growing interest in embodied cognition[18], the idea that bodily states influence mental processes. Posture, movement and physical stability can shape mood, confidence and perceived mental clarity. Footwear that alters how someone stands or moves may indirectly influence how focused they feel, even if it does not directly enhance cognition.
In the end, believing a product gives you an advantage may be the most powerful effect it has.
Where science and marketing diverge
The problem is not whether footwear influences the nervous system – it does – but imprecision. When companies claim their shoes are “mind-altering[19],” they often blur the distinction between sensory modulation and cognitive enhancement.
Neuroscience supports the idea that shoes can change sensory input, posture and movement. It does not support claims that footwear can reliably improve concentration or attention for the general population. If shoes truly produced strong cognitive changes, those effects would be robust, measurable and reproducible. So far, they are not.
Shoes can change how we feel in our bodies[20], how you move through space and how aware you are of your physical environment. Those changes may influence confidence, comfort and perception – all of which matter to experience.
But the most meaningful “mind-altering” effects a person can experience through physical fitness still come from sustained movement, training, sleep and attention[21] – not from sensation alone. Footwear may shape how the journey feels, but it is unlikely to rewire the destination.
References
- ^ claims its shoes can activate the brain (about.nike.com)
- ^ tapping into the brain-body connection (about.nike.com)
- ^ Naboso (www.naboso.com)
- ^ feet are rich in sensory receptors (doi.org)
- ^ As a neurosurgeon (drexel.edu)
- ^ contain thousands of mechanoreceptors (doi.org)
- ^ somatosensory cortex (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
- ^ proprioception (theconversation.com)
- ^ neuropathy (www.ninds.nih.gov)
- ^ alter how people move (doi.org)
- ^ is placed and when it’s touching the ground (doi.org)
- ^ constantly filters sensory input (news.mit.edu)
- ^ may increase cognitive load (doi.org)
- ^ activation alone does not equal cognitive enhancement (doi.org)
- ^ increase alertness in specific populations (doi.org)
- ^ Elena Popova/Moment via Getty Images (www.gettyimages.com)
- ^ Placebo effects (theconversation.com)
- ^ embodied cognition (plato.stanford.edu)
- ^ mind-altering (about.nike.com)
- ^ how we feel in our bodies (theconversation.com)
- ^ sustained movement, training, sleep and attention (www.health.harvard.edu)
Authors: Atom Sarkar, Professor of Neurosurgery, Drexel University
