As the columnist for the Weekend Herald‘s new Science & Tech page, Dr Michelle Dickinson test runs a new device that claims to use EEG monitoring to help build mental focus.
An excerpt (read in full here):
Science & Tech: Michelle Dickinson
I’ve been walking around wearing an odd, forehead-covering, Rambo-like headband called Muse this week. In this world of short attention spans, for some reason I was convinced I would have good control of my brain and this device was going to prove that to me.
Muse is a sensor technology-filled headband which I got from Dmitry Selitskiy at Thought Wired. It’s worn across your forehead and uses EEG (electroencephalography) to measure the electrical voltage fluctuations from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain. Basically it detects and records how active your brain cells are, then sends that information via Bluetooth to an app for live brain activity tracking.
Harvard University psychologists have shown that people spend 47 per cent of their waking hours thinking about something other than whatever it is they’re trying to focus on. This mental drift state can lead to stress, difficulties in concentrating and low focus periods at work.