U of C professor tests real-time brain scanners for Mars project
Researchers dressed in black, bulky spacesuits and large white helmets lumbered across a barren, rocky landscape that crumbled beneath their feet. The Canadian research team was dressed for Mars, but they were actually in the HI-SEAS, or Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation — a Mars-like locale that scientists use to run cosmological experiments. After an afternoon exploring nearby lava tubes, the team — from universities in Calgary, Victoria and Kelowna — returned to the HI-SEAS Habitat, a white dome that looks like an oversized golf ball in an abandoned quarry. Inside their temporary home, they put on thin headbands that translated the teams’ brain activity to scores in perception, learning, decision-making, memory and attention.
The group was testing electroencephalography (EEG) headbands that can read brainwaves. They’re interested in seeing if these headbands can be used to measure an astronaut’s cognitive ability during a mission and hope the technology can be incorporated with future NASA projects...
