Proceedings of the 2014 ISNR Conference

Abstract

A fundamental challenge of modern society is the development of effective approaches to enhance brain function and cognition in both healthy and impaired individuals. For the healthy, this serves as a core mission of our educational system and for the cognitively impaired this is a critical goal of our medical system. Unfortunately, there are serious and growing concerns about the ability of either system to meet this challenge. I will describe an approach developed in our lab that uses custom-designed video games to achieve meaningful and sustainable cognitive enhancement (e.g., Anguera et al., 2013), as well the next stage of our research program, which uses video games integrated with technological innovations in software (e.g., brain computer interface algorithms, Neurofeedback, GPU computing) and hardware (e.g., virtual reality headsets, mobile EEG, transcranial electrical brain stimulation) to create a novel personalized closed-loop system. I will share with you a vision of the future in which video games serve as an underlying engine to enhance our brain's information processing systems, thus reducing our reliance on non-specific drugs to treat neurological and psychiatric conditions and allowing us to better target our educational efforts. Online, Voluntary Control of Individual Neurons in the Human Brain Moran Cerf, PhDAssistant Professor of Business and Neuroscience, Kellogg School of Management, Illinois, USA and the University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Neurosurgery, California, USA Recording from single neurons in patients implanted with intracranial electrodes for clinical reasons, I will demonstrate that humans can regulate the activity of their neurons in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) to alter the outcome of the contest between external images and their internal representation using feedback from these neurons. I will discuss some of the works in real-time recording of the activity of individual neurons in the brains of humans in the last decade, and how these can be used to access the underlying mechanisms of our decisions, emotion, memory, and free will. Athletic performance has in the past focused on training the body. However, an athlete who can exercise volitional control of the levels of cognitive engagement and arousal of brain and body has an advantage during competition. A growing interest in a quantified self and the technological advances contributing to wearable sensors are creating a new opportunity in the field of sport psychology. The panel moderator will provide a brief overview of the most recent trends in the implementation of electroencephalography evaluation and training methods in professional and world-class level athletics. The panel will host professional athletes of wide-ranging demographics who have utilized these techniques to help them achieve the highest levels of success in the world of sports. Case-specific data of psychophysiological and performance outcomes will be elaborated upon as each athlete will describe his or her experiences of the evaluati...