Our Minds in Control

The practice of training your brain with neurofeedback is a relatively new one, but the technology behind it has been around for a while. Neurofeedback machines work by using real time real-time displays of brain activity to teach self-regulation of brain function. The brain activity is measured by an electroencephalography (or EEG), which monitors your brain waves.

EEG started being used in the turn of the last century, and since then we've come a long way. Here are a couple of updates on what science has been up to with these “brain-reading” machines:

The Neuroscience of Mind-Control Gaming (Variety)

Awakening” starts with a warning over the speaker system: “Wake up. This is not a test.” You play as a psychokinetically-gifted child and government prisoner – think Eleven from “Stranger Things.” You’re locked inside an unassuming examination room that contains a few toys scattered nearby: A block, a balloon dog, and a ball. These light up in a pulsating beam, each rising into the air, slowly rotating until you turn your focus to the next. Hanging from the opposite wall is a mirror which, if smashed, will reveal a hidden keypad and a way out. The aim is to escape the room. The trick? No hands, only thoughts.

This Sculptor Imagines Brain Waves in 3-D (Smithsonian.com)

Brain waves are normally the stuff of beeping hospital machines, but this Friday, they’ll be on display at the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building. Artist Julia Buntaine Hoel, whose work exists at the intersection of science and art, has handcrafted thickets of black wire—sculptures aptly named Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma and Theta Wave(s)—that imagine the varying electrical activity of the brain in 3-D form.

This artist is using AI to paint with his mind (The Washington Post)

His technique relies instead on a new creative tool that artists such as Reben are just beginning to explore: artificial intelligence. With the help of algorithms, Reben is producing images in collaboration with machine intelligence. The images are eventually reproduced physically in a Chinese town that is home to artists who specialize in re-creating works of art on the canvas, completing what Reben refers to as “a robotic loop of art-making.”"