Download Making Waves With Your Brain!!!!

Nick Carter 1-27-2016
This presentation is made for free educational purposes.
Your Brain is Electrical!
• Your brain is made up of millions of NEURONS
• The neurons use chemicals and electricity to communicate
with each other
• It takes a lot of energy
– The Brain takes 20% of the total body energy.
– 2/3 of that brain energy is used to help Neurons send electrical
signals
• Brain cells use chemical reactions to make electricity
• EEGs* measure the external brain voltages so we can look
at them
* ElectroEncephaloGraphs
How do Brain cells make Electricity?
Do they have batteries?
• Batteries make electricity using chemical reactions that
make extra electrons at one terminal and a need for
electrons at the other terminal creating a voltage difference
between the terminals
• Materials like to stay neutral without extra electrons or
missing electrons
• Conductive wires make an easy path for electrons to travel
from the terminal with extra to the terminal without
enough
• As the electrons travel, they transfer energy to other things
they pass through like motors, phones and light bulbs
• People make batteries using chemicals that make the most
power – chemicals often poisonous to humans
• But brain cells……………………..
Wire
But what about Brain cells?
• Brain cells also use chemical reactions to make electricity
• Brains do not have wires so they use human friendly
chemicals to send electricity through the cells.
• A neuron sends electricity using a pulse of IONs (charged
chemicals - rather than the electrons themselves) to
where it touches another neuron at a synapse.
• The electric pulse makes a chemical called a
neurotransmitter go to the next neuron.
• If the next neuron gets enough neurotransmitters it will
make an electrical pulse to send towards the next one.
Electrical signal
pulses make
neurotransmitter
chemicals cross to
the other neuron
Electrical signal pulses 
Received
neurotransmitter
chemicals make
new electrical
signals
Enough new
electrical signals
sensed makes an
electrical pulse go 
New Electrical signal pulses 
Brain Waves
• Brain Waves are electrical signals detected on
the outside of your brain
• They result from the total average electrical
activity inside your brain
• You cannot get a shock from them, they are
very small voltages
• The signals change in size at regular intervals
between 1/10 and 60 times a second
depending how active the brain is.
Brain Wave Pulse Rate Matches How
Active your Brain is
Delta waves – when unconscious or asleep
1/10 to 4 pulses a second
Theta waves – when conscious but sleepy
4 to 7 pulses a second
Alpha waves – when relaxing physically and mentally
7 to 13 pulses a second
Beta waves -- when actively alert, tense or agitated
13 to 60 pulses a second
The MindFlex Game uses Brainwaves
to Control Objects.
• The Headset measures the Brain electrical
signals and separates the different waves out
• It uses the signals to sense how focused you
are.
• These signals are sent wirelessly to the base
unit to control the ball or the fan position in
the game.
We can see the signals it measures
“Frontier Nerds” made a hack to see the Wave Signal Sizes
Serial/USB cable
PC using their Processing
App.
Parsed based on Neurosky
mindset communications protocol
Samples move this way at 1/Sec
PC
Display
Bar Graph Values of
Current Sample