By measuring the brain’s electrical signals we can explore how the brain links sensory information to meaning and transform it into memory - Beckman Institute
At one busy exhibit at the 2024 Beckman Institute Open House, visitors donned headbands with sensors and focused on foam balls hovering above small fans. It seemed like the visitors simply watched the balls move up and down, but their headbands actually detected their brains’ electrical signals, letting them control the balls’ movements with their minds.
This exhibit, voted the best interactive exhibit at the open house, was a collaboration between the Cognition and Brain Lab, or CAB Lab, and the Alcohol Research Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
“The exhibit was trying to highlight, for the public, the cool factor that we can put sensors on people’s heads and actually pick up something about what the brain’s doing, with a high degree of cognitive and temporal resolution,” said Kara Federmeier, a professor of psychology at the Illinois and director of the CAB Lab.
The CAB Lab measures the brain’s electrical signals to explore how the brain links sensory information to meaning and transforms it into memory.