Event 2 | Octopus Brain Storming

The second event I attended this quarter was a behind-the-scenes preview demonstration of Brainstorming: Empathy, a collaboration between Professor Vesna and neuroscientist Dr. Mark Cohen. The project is currently being redesigned after having first been exhibited on October 7, 2016 at the opening of the UCLA Luskin Conference Center. The Brainstorming series is centered around the possibilities of brain-to-brain communication, and this particular work involves two participants whose brainwaves are recorded in real-time and converted into audiovisual representations.

Background information for the project

The two active participants sit at an octagonal table illuminated by LEDs. Each wears an octopus-shaped crown fitted with numerous colored LEDs and allowing for the placement of electrodes around the head. The electrodes capture brain signals from the participants and transmit them to a computer for analysis. A Fourier transform is applied to the data to determine signal energy at various frequencies, where alpha (8-14 Hertz) and theta (4-7 Hertz) waves are of particular interest. Both the separate brain wave data and the relative synchrony between the individuals’ brain patterns are then used to control the visual and audio elements of the experience. These are namely the colors of the various LEDs on the crowns and table as well as the mix of eight audio tracks that together comprise a single piece. Between the crowns, the table, and the sounds, the participants as well as the audience witness in real time the individual signals as well as their similarity.

Professor Vesna performed the demonstration on two students

Furthermore, a series of videos such as news clips play on a screen. Sporadically disrupting the synchronization between the two person’s brain patterns allows for observing the process of “reconnection” which could be qualitatively different depending upon if the participants are e.g. locking eyes or holding hands.

The news played in the background to induce interruption 

As an electrical engineering student interested in neuroscience, I was particularly intrigued by this work and its incorporation of biotechnology and art. Like many aspects of the brain, neural signals are not completely understood, still carrying an air of mystery about them despite their discovery nearly a century ago. Algorithmically controlled audiovisual representations of this data allow us to experience these signals in ways not possible merely through plots or statistical analysis alone. This work reveals aspects of interaction between people normally inaccessible to us. I am reminded of other efforts to augment sensory perception such as “body-hackers” implanting magnets under their skin or Baylor neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman’s “VEST” (Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer) project which allows deaf patients to interpret audio via a vest filled with small buzzing motors.

Flow chart for the data acquisition and analysis

Although I am skeptical as to the extent mind-to-mind “synchronicity” can be meaningfully quantified, learning about the Brainstorming project helped me appreciate the ways in which art can be used to not only illuminate but truly bring alive scientific data, especially complex data such as that generated through biotechnology. The human brain’s powers of pattern recognition make this particularly exciting when applied to data about which we lack deep understanding.

Three signal channel (alpha, beta and theta) after Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) was performed 

Additionally, in an explanatory video during the event, Dr. Cohen himself remarked that the data obtained through this work is itself invaluable, since the environment (and resulting data) of an interactive art exhibition is not mired by the sort of rigorous, clinical constraints of a laboratory setting. Seeking this sort of data created outside of an artificial setting (and indeed in a unique and novel environment like the exhibition of an art work) could be beneficial far beyond just neuroscience. Electrical engineers can contribute through the development of better or unique sensors that, when combined with innovative artistic displays of information, can improve our understanding and make the invisible visible.

A picture of me try the "Octopus" on