Neuroscience and Product Marketing

As part of new scientific fad, companies have started utilizing neurotechnological devices to gain insight the buying decisions of consumers.  By using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Electroencephalography (EEG), companies are able to tract the electrical activity that occurs in the brain as the subjects view a products, advertisements and packaging.

                                    source: fastcompany.com

By abandoning the practice of behavioral studies for guidance, companies are learning how the human brain makes the on-the-spot, subconscious decisions.

Targeted Muscle Reinnervation

Targeted muscle reinnervation is the process by which a prosthetic limb, controlled by the patient’s brain, is surgically implanted into an amputee. Doctors connect nerves that remain in the body after a limb is amputated to another muscle in the body (often the chest when the patient has lost an arm). They allow the nerves to grow into the muscles in the chest for a few months. Doctors then implant electrodes onto the reconnected nerves. When the patient wants to move the introduced prosthetic arm, the brain tells the muscles in the chest to contract by using electromyography. Electromyography (EMG) detects the electrical signals given off by muscle cells when the brain activates them. The contraction signals the prosthetic arm to move by EMG signals instead of the motor commands that once connected the brain directly to the muscles in the limb...

Brain-Computer Headsets for Gamers

            In late 2008, an Australian technology company called Emotiv released the first gaming headset for use in videogames. Using EEG technology, the headset measures electrical impulses from all over the head and translates the thoughts via Wi-Fi to movements in characters on the screen. Thus, gamers can move their avatars through virtual worlds just by thinking about it[1].

            The headset, comprised of sixteen electrodes, can read more than thirty different emotions in addition to dozens more movements. If a player wants an avatar to jump, for instance, the user imagines the act of jumping...

Brain-Computer Interfaces: Giving a voice to patients

"My diving bell becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly."

-   Jean-Cominique Bauby from The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The quote above comes from Jean-Cominique Bauby, a well-known journalist, author and editor of the French magazines Elle. As a result of a massive stroke, Bauby awoke to find himself in a condition called Locked-in Syndrome.  Locked-in Syndrome is a neurological disorder that results in complete paralysis of all voluntary muscles throughout the body except those that control eye movement.  Bauby was left speechless and unable to move; his only means of communication was blinking.  He, with the help of an assistant wrote his memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by blinking when the correct letter of the word he was thinking was recited. 

But what if there had been an easier way?

Brain-Computer Interfaces: The Back Story

Research for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) began in the 1970s at UCLA with a grant from the National Science Foundation. Primarily, these technologies were intended for those with neurological disorders like paralysis. Decades later, in the 1990s, researchers at University of California, Berkley, decoded neural firings connected to retinas in cats. From these recordings, they produced clips of images the cats had seen[1]...

How do Brain-Computer Interfaces work?

To understand how a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) works, one has to know how the brain works. Every time we do anything, small electrical signals move from neuron to neuron as a result of differences in electric potential carried by ions in the membrane of the neurons. As the electrical signal is sent through the dendrite and along the axon, scientists are able to interpret the signals.

Brain-Computer Interfaces can vary on how invasive they are. Electroencephalograph can be attached to the scalp, which is not invasive at all. However, the skull blocks a lot of electrical signal, making the results not as strong. For better signals, electrodes can be implanted into the gray matter on the surface of the brain. However, scar tissue can form, which ends up blocking the signal too. The electrodes measure the difference in voltage between the neurons.

Playing Ping Pong with Your Mind!

This is a movie of people who are playing ping pong without moving.