Brain Computer Interfaces — From Lab to Living Room
Consumer brain computer interfaces have entered the marketplace, but what do they do exactly?
Category: Brain Training Software & Brain Games
Video Games as Cognitive Enhancement
Whether playing video games has negative effects is something that has been debated for 30 years, in much the same way that rock and roll, television, and even the novel faced much the same criticisms in their time.
Brain-training Isn’t Just A Modern Phenomenon, The Edwardians Were Also Fans
Previous systems of “memory-training” were quite popular in 19th-century Britain.
Aging Brains Aren’t Necessarily Declining Brains
For years, conventional wisdom held that growing older tends to be bad news for brains. Past behavioral data largely pointed to loss in cognitive – that is, thinking – abilities with age, including poorer memory and greater distractibility. Physical measures of brain structure also showed atrophy, or loss of volume, in many regions with age.
Sunday Puzzle
Exercise your brain. Solve the Sunday puzzle created by puzzle expert G. Sarcone and win the Archimedes’ Lab Award.
The Sensorium: A Multimodal Neurofeedback Environment
The Sensorium is a neurofeedback environment that allows people to experience signals from their non-perceptible body processes visually and auditorily. Various (neuro-)physiological rhythms and frequencies are projected simultaneously as soundscapes and “lightscapes” into the environment. A wireless physiological amplifier device sends signals such as EEG and ECG to a computer for real-time processing using the modified brain-computer interface software “Thought Translation Device” (TTD). The TTD performs signal filtering, parametric orchestral sonification, and light control. In a pilot study, 20 participants have been exposed to their ongoing brain and heart signals while sitting inside the Sensorium, a small room equipped with a speaker and lighting system. Almost all of them reported an increase in contentment, relaxation, happiness, and inner harmony. They also reported a widening in their body consciousness. In future, therapeutic paradigms will be developed and the treatment effects on people with psychosomatic diseases will be evaluated.
Mindapps and The Neurosingularity Project
When Bigger Heads and Better Brains Surpass Our Current Ones
Does Brain Training Software Work?
Two dozen leading experts in the brain recently converged for a daylong meeting at Stanford University. The meeting focused on a review of the current state of research and scientific knowledge related to software products and approaches that aim to defend against age-related cognitive decline. This meeting follows a similar meeting held five years ago which resulted in the 2008 Expert Consensus on Brain Health.