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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Expressive aphasia can happen after brain damage and may affect your ability to speak or write.</li><li>A few signs include using short phrases and substituting words with similar sounds or meanings.</li></ul>After a <a href="https://www.insider.com/guides/health/conditions-symptoms/what-is-a-stroke">stroke</a> or <a href="https://www.insider.com/three-concussions-turning-point-for-brain-injury-study-2023-1">brain injury</a>, many people have trouble talking.One type of communication disorder that's common after brain damage is expressive aphasia. With this condition, you generally understand what people say to you, but you may find it difficult to produce the right words to respond.For example, a person who intends to say "son" might make a sound-based substitution and say "bun." Or they might make a meaning-based substitution and say "daughter", says <a href="http://myspeechtherapy.ca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jennifer Hicks</a>, a speech-language pathologist who specializes in aphasia.Expressive aphasia, also called Broca's aphasia or non-fluent aphasia, is one of the <a href="https://www.regionalneurological.com/types-of-aphasia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">six types</a> of <a href="https://www.insider.com/bruce-willis-aphasia-language-disorder-symptoms-causes-2022-3">aphasia</a> — a form of language impairment that often relates to a brain injury.While aphasia is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559315/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20National%20Institute,Americans%20are%20affected%20with%20aphasia." target="_blank" rel="noopener">fairly uncommon</a> in the general population, it's very common with certain conditions, such as stroke. In fact, about <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7731688/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a third</a> of people who have a stroke will develop aphasia.Without a doubt, struggling with speech can be frustrating, but treatment may help you recover some language ability. You can also use assistive technologies like speech generators to fill in the gaps.Read on to learn why expressive aphasia happens, your options for treatment, and how loved ones can offer support.<h2>Signs and symptoms</h2>People with expressive aphasia have trouble speaking fluently, but usually they can still understand spoken words, says <a href="https://www.neuroskills.com/files/ExpertCard-GarySeale_202009.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gary Seale</a>, researcher and psychologist specializing in brain injury at the <a href="https://www.neuroskills.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Centre for Neuro Skills</a>. Likewise, someone may struggle with writing but remain able to read fairly well.Intellectual abilities outside of language, like math or pattern recognition, <a href="https://www.aphasia.org/aphasia-resources/brocas-aphasia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">may remain intact</a>.<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK436010/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Common signs</a> of expressive aphasia include:<ul><li>Using short phrases: Someone with this condition may speak in simple sentences of just three to four words. For instance, "Give me shoes," instead of "Could you pass me my sneakers from under that bench there?"</li><li>Speech with missing words or poor grammar: Someone might say, "Child run woods," instead of "A child is running into the woods."</li><li>Pauses in speech: Someone may pause mid-sentence, often to mentally search for the right word. For example, "I need (pause) headphones."</li><li>Sound-based word substitutions: Another sign of expressive aphasia is using the wrong word with the same sound. For example, saying "fridge" instead of "bridge."</li><li>Meaning-based word substitutions: People with aphasia may also use a word that has a similar meaning but isn't quite right for the context, such as "sack" instead of "purse."</li></ul>Note: Expressive aphasia doesn't affect speech on its own. But the part of your brain that controls motor skills sits close to the Broca's area. So, a stroke or brain injury may cause nerve damage that leads to weakness and affects movement, especially <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK436010/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on the right side</a> of your body. It's this nerve damage that can restrict your ability to talk.<h2>Causes</h2>The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK436010/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">most common cause</a> of expressive aphasia is an ischemic <a href="https://www.insider.com/stroke-signs-symptoms-face-droop-weakness-speech-american-heart-association-2022-8">stroke</a>, which happens when a blood clot or fatty tissue blocks blood flow to your brain, starving it of the oxygen it needs to function. This condition can also stem from <a href="https://www.insider.com/guides/health/traumatic-brain-injury">brain injury</a>, <a href="https://www.insider.com/man-headache-brain-cancer-glioma-symptoms-diagnosis-optician-2022-9">tumors</a>, or viral brain infections like <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892771/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cat scratch disease</a>.Note: Some people have developed <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8529864/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expressive aphasia after COVID-19 infections</a>. According to one theory, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-live-updates-latest-news">virus</a> causes your blood to clot excessively, and clots formed in the brain may lead to a stroke. In fact, some evidence suggests your risk of having a stroke in the next year <a href="https://www.stroke.org/en/news/2022/03/31/after-covid-19-experts-say-watch-for-these-potential-heart-and-brain-problems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increases by 52%</a> after a COVID-19 infection.Strokes, injuries, and other types of brain trauma can damage a part of your brain called the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1414491112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Broca's area</a>, which controls several aspects of language.One important function of the Broca's area is helping you translate your thoughts into words. When you want to say "puppy," for example, this area helps you transform the image of a four-legged fluffball into the correct sounds and letters. But an injury to the Broca's area can make it hard to find the word you need in a given moment.The Broca's area also helps organize information into understandable sentences. An injury to this area, then, could make it difficult to fully express a complicated idea like "I don't need to buy a ticket today."Instead, you might boil down the thought to "No buy ticket now." Your sentence is still understandable, but it <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1414491112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">doesn't capture the full meaning</a> of what you wanted to say.Expressive aphasia is considered a language disorder, not a speech disorder. That's because it doesn't affect your mouth's ability to physically make sounds. Rather, it damages your brain's internal teleprompter, mixing up your mental script before your mouth can read it off.<h2>Diagnosis</h2>If you or a loved one shows signs of expressive aphasia, you may want to seek out an assessment from a <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/aphasia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech-language pathologist</a>. These professionals treat speech, language, and communication disorders. They can <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK436010/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">give you tests</a> that check your ability to:<ul><li>Name objects</li><li>Repeat short phrases</li><li>Follow simple or complex commands</li><li>Read</li><li>Write</li></ul>These tests can help determine the cause of your symptoms, whether that's expressive aphasia or another condition entirely.You may also find it helpful to visit a neurologist. These specialists can order <a href="https://www.insider.com/guides/health/can-you-have-an-mri-with-a-pacemaker">imaging scans</a> to assess your level of brain damage. They can then recommend treatment options, based on the areas of your brain injured.<h2>Treatment</h2>A number of different treatments can help improve symptoms of expressive aphasia, including speech and language therapy.In <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7880889/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech and language therapy</a> for expressive aphasia, you may practice exercises like:<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="1"><tbody><tr><td style="width: 59.2208%;">Exercises</td><td style="width: 40.6494%;">Examples</td></tr><tr><td style="width: 59.2208%;">Putting words to a melody. You'll use pitch cues and the momentum of rhythm to speak more fluently. <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00592/full" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stressed syllables</a> get a higher, longer note.</td><td style="width: 40.6494%;">"Completely" becomes com-PLETE-ly</td></tr><tr><td style="width: 59.2208%;">Describing the word you're looking for. You may describe what the word means or how it sounds. This extra information helps your brain find the word quicker.</td><td style="width: 40.6494%;">"A vegetable…orange…small…rhymes with parrot — CARROT, that's what I wanted."</td></tr><tr><td style="width: 59.2208%;">Practicing sentence construction. The therapist assigns you a verb to create sentences with.</td><td style="width: 40.6494%;">"Cows eat hay. Wolves eat cows. Harold eats pasta."</td></tr><tr><td style="width: 59.2208%;">Learning how to use alternate modes of communication. Your therapist may teach you how to use picture boards or <a href="https://www.aphasia.org/aphasia-resources/aphasia-apps/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech-generating apps</a>. </td><td style="width: 40.6494%;">Instead of saying "I love Sadie," you might point to a photo of yourself, a heart icon, and then Sadie's picture.</td></tr></tbody></table>In addition to speech and language therapy, you may also find it helpful to try other approaches, including:<ul><li>Medications: Drugs called cholinergic agents mimic the effects of the neurotransmitter <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/12/10/1273" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acetylcholine</a>, which supports language skills like naming objects. Cholinergic agents like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/a-cheap-old-drug-may-keep-people-with-advanced-alzheimers-out-of-nursing-homes-2015-10">donepezil</a> (Aricept) may improve your ability to produce <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7880889/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spontaneous speech</a>.</li><li>Psychotherapy: Between <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7880889/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">30%-60%</a> of stroke survivors go on to develop <a href="https://www.insider.com/guides/health/mental-health/what-is-depression">depression</a>, which can itself interfere with language performance.</li><li>Non-invasive brain stimulation: This treatment sends a low electric current to your brain to "wake up" neurons in your language centers. Some <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7880889/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">smaller studies</a> suggest brain stimulation may boost your outcomes in speech and language therapy.</li></ul>Note: Types of <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/transcranial-magnetic-stimulation-shows-untapped-potential-to-treat-depression-survey-finds-1028760131">brain stimulation</a> include transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). However, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7880889/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">experts generally prefer tDCS</a> since TMS has a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7732158/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">small chance</a> of causing seizures.<h3>Outlook</h3>Hicks has seen a wide variety of outcomes with aphasia treatment in her 25 years of practice.For instance, she's worked with people who started therapy nonverbal and ended treatment able to comfortably hold conversations. Other people she's worked with have made more subtle verbal gains — but learned to use alternative methods of communication successfully.Hicks says many factors can play a part in treatment outcomes, including:<ul><li>Your age and pre-existing health</li><li>Your language skills before the injury</li><li>The size and location of the damaged area in your brain</li><li>Whether your injury affected other cognitive abilities, like <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6556322/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">maintaining focus</a></li><li>Co-occurring nerve damage</li><li>How quickly you start getting treatment after your injury</li><li>The frequency and intensity of treatment sessions</li></ul>It's difficult to predict the extent you may recover your speech, but improvements can continue for up to a year and beyond, according to <a href="https://doctors.stonybrookmedicine.edu/provider/Alison%20Caruana/2250676" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Alison Caruana</a>, neurologist and clinical assistant professor at <a href="https://www.stonybrookmedicine.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stony Brook Medicine</a>.Sticking with treatment, then, may lead to greater improvement over time.<h2>How to support a loved one</h2>Living with expressive aphasia can feel overwhelming and isolating at times. If you have a loved one with this condition, your <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/aphasia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">support is essential</a> — not just for emotional connection, but also to help them practice and maintain their language skills.Seale offers several tips to improve your communication with a loved one who has expressive aphasia:<ul><li>Reduce background noise and distractions: For example, turn off the TV or move to a quieter room when you're talking about your plans for the weekend.</li><li>Speak slowly and clearly: You likely don't want to switch to "baby talk," but it can help to make sure you're not going full motor mouth, either.</li><li>Give the person time to process what you've said and form a response: Peppering them with question after question may overwhelm them.</li><li>Offer choices rather than open-ended questions: A yes-no question like "Would you like to play checkers with me?" is easier to answer than "What do you want to do today?"</li><li>Pay attention when they point or gesture: Visual aids can be a powerful conversational tool.</li></ul>Your loved one's care team can offer additional advice for your unique circumstances.<h2>Insider's takeaway</h2>Expressive aphasia disrupts your ability to transform your thoughts into words. You may understand what you read or hear but find it tough to fully express your own ideas. This condition is typically caused by damage to your Broca's area, a part of your brain that affects language.Speech-language pathologists typically diagnose and treat this condition, although your care team may also include neurologists and other specialists. Treatment can help you regain language abilities like word retrieval and sentence construction. That said, your level of recovery depends on many factors, including your language ability before your injury.Support from friends and family can be very valuable during this time. Above all, have patience with yourself — recovering from brain damage can be a trial in its own right. But no matter your situation, you have a variety of tools and treatment options to help you live your best quality of life.

How to recognize and treat expressive aphasia, a communication disorder that can happen after brain damage

<keyword id="80007" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Physically-fit">Physically fit</keyword> children have faster <keyword id="2300790" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Neuro-electrical-brain">neuro-electrical brain</keyword> responses during reading than their less-fit peers. These differences correspond with better language skills in the children who are fit, according to a new study published in the journal Brain and Cognition. 
 
The research does not prove that better level of fitness directly influences the changes seen in the electrical activity of the brain, but offer a potential mechanism to explain why fitness correlates so closely with better cognitive performance on a variety of tasks. 
 Charles Hillman, the professor of <keyword id="1236676" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="kinesiology">kinesiology</keyword> and community health at the <keyword id="174662" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="University-of-Illinois">University of Illinois</keyword>, led the research. "All we know is there is something different about higher and lower fit kids," he commented on the outcome. 
 
"Now whether that difference is caused by fitness or maybe some third variable that (affects) both fitness and language processing, we don't know yet," he added. 
 The researchers used <keyword id="403507" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="electroencephalography">electroencephalography</keyword> (EEG) to capture some of the electrical impulses associated with brain activity. 
 
The readouts from the electrodes look like seismic readings captured during an earthquake and characteristic wave patterns are associated with different tasks. These patterns are called event-related potentials (ERPs). 
 
ERPs vary according to the person being evaluated and the nature of the stimulus, said graduate student Mark Scudder. For instance, if you hear or read a word in a sentence that makes sense, the component of the brainwave form, known as the N400, is less pronounced than if you read a sentence in which the word no longer makes sense, he explained. 
 
The researchers found that children who were more fit (as measured by oxygen uptake during exercise) had higher amplitude N400 and P600 waves than their less-fit peers when reading normal or nonsensical sentences. The N400 also had shorter latency in children who were fit, suggesting that they processed the same information more quickly than their peers. 
 
These differences in brain activity corresponded to better reading performance and language comprehension in the healthier children, the researchers said. 
(Image: Thinkstock)

​Physically Fit Kids Have Faster Neuro-electrical Brain Responses: Study

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Jon Woo/Reuters</div></div></div><ul><li>Chinese businesses and the military are monitoring employees' brain activity and emotions.</li><li>The "emotional surveillance technology" helps employers identify mood shifts so they can change break times, an employee's task, or even send them home.</li><li>The technology reportedly increases productivity and profitability, with one company claiming its profits jumped by $315 million.</li><li>Emotional surveillance adds to a wide surveillance network of facial recognition and internet censorship across China.</li></ul> Employees' brain waves are reportedly being monitored in factories, state-owned enterprises, and the military across China.The technology works by placing wireless sensors in employees' caps or hats which, combined with artificial intelligence algorithms, spot incidents of workplace rage, anxiety, or sadness.Employers use this "emotional surveillance technology" by then tweaking workflows, including employee placement and breaks, to increase productivity and profits.At State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power in the southeast city of Hangzhou, company profits jumped by $315 million since the technology was introduced in 2014, an official told the <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2143899/forget-facebook-leak-china-mining-data-directly-workers-brains">South China Morning Post</a>.Cheng Jingzhou, the official who oversees the company's program, said "there is no doubt about its effect," and brain data helps the 40,000-strong firm work to higher standards.According to the SCMP, more than a dozen businesses and China's military have used a different programme developed by the government-funded brain surveillance project Neuro Cap, based out of Ningbo University."They thought we could read their mind. This caused some discomfort and resistance in the beginning," Jin Jia, a professor of brain science at Ningbo University told the Post. "After a while they got used to the device... They wore it all day at work."Jin also said that employees' brainwaves can be enough for managers to send them home."When the system issues a warning, the manager asks the worker to take a day off or move to a less critical post. Some jobs require high concentration. There is no room for a mistake."Another type of sensor, built by technology company Deayea, is reportedly used in the caps of train drivers on the high-speed rail line between Beijing and Shanghai. The sensor can even trigger an alarm if a driver falls asleep.Widespread use of emotion monitoring may mark a new stage in China's surveillance state, which has largely been focused on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-china-uses-facial-recognition-technology-surveillance-2018-2/">facial recognition</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-great-firewall-censorship-under-xi-jinping-2018-3">increasing internet censorship</a>.It's unknown if all employees subjected to the technology are aware they are being monitored, but even if they were China's privacy laws would be unlikely to help.The notoriously lax privacy laws, and the country's large sample population, have helped China leap ahead with its artificial intelligence research.According to a <a href="https://www.cbinsights.com/reports/CB-Insights_State-of-Artificial-Intelligence-2018.pdf">report by CB Insights</a>, China applied for five times as many AI patents as the US in 2017. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wyze-labs-camera-google-nest-cam-2018-4">How a tiny camera startup is taking on Amazon and Google</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

China is monitoring employees' brain waves and emotions - and the technology boosted one company's profits by $315 million

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div><ul><li>Biocybernaut is a 7-day retreat that claims it can make you smarter, more creative, and a better athlete or leader.</li><li>It uses a technique called neurofeedback - putting sensors on your scalp and learning to control your brain waves.</li><li>Neurofeedback maintains that you can become aware of when your brain is in which state of activity and shift from a less-optimal state to a better one.</li><li>Can't focus? You need to shift up into a higher brain frequency. Anxious or angry? You need to shift down into a lower one.</li></ul>If there were a way to improve your focus, boost your creativity, and make you a better athlete or leader - all without a single pill or side effect - would you do it? What if I told you it only took seven days?One company promises to provide these results. There's a catch, of course: It costs $15,000, and the <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> is still unsure.The <a href="http://www.biocybernaut.com/">Biocybernaut Institute</a>, created by physicist and psychologist James Hardt, offers a kind of intensive cerebral workout using a type of training called neurofeedback. The neuro-part involves placing a <a href="http://www.eegspectrum.com/faq/">series of sensors on the scalp</a> (kind of like a basic EEG) to track your brain's electrical activity. The feedback-part involves hooking those sensors up to equipment that gives you a snapshot of your brain activity in real time.The method is aimed at letting participants gain control of their own brain waves.And if you can control your brain waves, they say, you can control, well, everything - from how creative and attentive you are to how driven and focused you are during a presentation or an athletic event. Can't focus? You need to know how to shift up into a higher brain frequency. Anxious or angry? You need to shift down into a lower one."I always say ... it's the greatest technology that nobody's ever heard of," Alice Miller, a Biocybernaut trainer, told Business Insider.<h2>'Maximize your potential'</h2>Founder James Hardt claims his retreats, held mostly in darkened chambers in Sedona, Arizona; Bavaria, Germany; and Victoria, British Columbia, will "expand your awareness more than 20 years of Zen meditation."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Entrepreneur Tony Robbins is a big fan. His testimonial, <a href="http://www.biocybernaut.com/testimonials">featured prominently</a> on Biocybernaut's site, reads:"I now have the ability to visualize two separate tasks simultaneously. Example being, I can now type an email to one person while having an conversation with another person and the email will be flawless. Hard to imagine (sic) how this would happen, but it happened after my ... training."That training goes like this: In unlit rooms, or "chambers," as the institute calls them, participants do rotations of auditory and visual feedback. For 2 minutes, they close their eyes and listen to various tones that are paired with specific brain wave frequencies. (The louder the tone, the higher their brain wave frequency. The softer the tone, the lower their brain wave frequency.) Then for 8 seconds, they see colored numbers on a screen designed to tell them "which direction" their brain waves appear to be moving - either up into a higher frequency, or down into a lower one.Miller says people make intense progress even though the retreat only lasts seven days."The people who come in on day one are not the same people who leave on day seven," she said, adding, "After they do this training people just want more. They start businesses, they get promotions, they change."Though that might sound insane, there is some scientific evidence to back it up the technique - but it only goes so far.<h2>Our electric brains</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>The first person to measure the brain's electricity was Austrian psychiatrist Hans Berger, who <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1738204/">reported a technique</a> for "recording the electrical activity of the human brain from the surface of the head" in 1924. It was the world's first electroencephalogram, or EEG.Today, we know that most of the electrical activity from the scalp <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22090396">falls in a range of roughly 1 to 20 Hertz</a> (Hz). Neuroscientists <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22090396">typically divide this activity into 4 specific ranges, or bands</a>. Each level corresponds to a specific type of alertness - at the lowest, called delta, you're literally asleep; at the highest, called beta, you're focused and attentive.It breaks down like this:<ul><li>Delta: 1-4 Hz - activity your brain emits while you're asleep</li><li>Theta: 4-8 Hz - what your brain waves might look like when you're "zoning off" or not really paying attention</li><li>Alpha: 8-12 Hz - your relaxed but wakeful state</li><li>Beta: 12-30 Hz - the the brain waves your noggin tends to emit when you're sharply focused</li></ul>Neurofeedback operates on the principal that you can become aware of when your brain is in which state - or band of activity - and then consciously shift from a less-optimal state to a better one.If you can't focus and your brain is showing lots of theta activity, the logic goes, you'd want to shift up into an alpha or beta state. If you're anxious and angry and your brain is trapped in beta, you want to shift down into alpha or theta.Miller claims that if you use neurofeedback technology to practice doing this for long enough, your brain will start to make those transitions on its own."Say you went and you yelled at the checkout person, maybe three times a week you have this issue," she says. "With the training, you come back and realize, 'You know what, I haven't lost my cool at the checkout for three months!' The triggers are gone. You won't even realize it. You're operating completely differently."Unfortunately, scientific research on neurofeedback doesn't support the vast majority of these claims. (There is one application of neurofeedback that is both <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22090396">promising</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19715181">well-researched</a> - but only appeals to a very specific population: People with ADHD.)<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>In a 2005 review on the use of neurofeedback in athletes, <a href="https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/social-and-applied-sciences/psychology-politics-and-sociology/staff/Profile.aspx?staff=79bdff94814a4038">David Vernon</a>, a professor of psychology at Canterbury Christ Church in the UK, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10484-005-8421-4">concluded that</a> "the plethora of claims regarding the use of neurofeedback training to enhance performance is matched only by the paucity of research showing a clear effect."Vernon and his team also looked at studies of neurofeedback's mood-enhancing capabilities in <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10874200903334397" target="_blank">another review</a>. They concluded that "the notion that alpha neurofeedback can enhance the mood of healthy individuals has yet to be firmly established."Nevertheless, Miller says she's hoping Biocybernaut will expand and continue to reach more people."It sounds like we're selling snake oil. 'It does this, does that, it even butters your toast!' But it's true," she says. "We see it every single time. People leave and say 'Oh my gosh how come nobody knows about this?'" <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tony-robbins-simple-advice-finance-paul-tudor-jones-ray-dalio-emergency-fund-diversify-2017-3">Tony Robbins shares the simple financial advice he learned from working with the smartest financial people in the world</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="FubzI5YTE6CFjhjm1araKvZF-RKX9sR_" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

A little-known technology claims to make you faster, stronger, and smarter by helping you control your brain waves

<a href="https://www.instagram.com/andrewtalansky/">Instagram/Andrew Talansky</a>Andrew Talansky, America's top cyclist, on his trainer while wearing a Halo Neuroscience headset, which he says has improved his performance.The <a href="http://www.procyclingstats.com/rankings.php?id=6104&amp;id=6104&amp;nation=us&amp;team=&amp;page=1&amp;prev_entry_id=390&amp;younger=&amp;older=&amp;ApplyFilter=Filter" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">highest-ranked American cyclist</a> heading into this year's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/tour-de-france">Tour de France</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/andrew-talansky">Andrew Talansky</a>, is using portable neuroscience technology to try to gain an edge over his world-class rivals, and he says his performance has improved since he began using it regularly in December.The state-of-the-art technology was created by the Silicon Valley startup <a href="https://www.haloneuro.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Halo Neuroscience</a>, which counts Andreessen Horowitz and Lux Capital among its investors. <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/halo-neuroscience#/entity" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Halo has raised $10.6 million</a> in funding.Players in the <a href="https://www.si.com/tech-media/2016/12/28/nfl-players-using-halo-headsets-get-more-out-their-brains" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NFL</a> and <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/sf-giants-halo-headphones-world-series-baseball/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MLB</a>, <a href="https://www.ibm.com/blogs/think-leaders/new-thinking/neurostimulation-optimize-brains-can-overcome-stigma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Olympians</a>, and Navy <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/navy-seal-team-6-operators-are-testing-special-headsets-2017-4">SEALs</a> are <a href="https://www.instagram.com/haloneuroscience/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">among those</a> who have tried Halo, but Talansky is one of just two cyclists at the sport's highest level we know of using neuroscience technology. The Halo Sport headset retails for $750, and the app is free, though the company said it may eventually launch a premium version.<h2>How Halo Sport works</h2>Halo NeuroscienceThe Halo Neuroscience headset and mobile app.The <a href="https://www.haloneuro.com/science" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">science behind Halo</a> is based on what the company calls neuropriming, or "the process of using electrical stimulation during movement-based training to build stronger, more optimized connections between your brain and muscles." According to <a href="https://www.haloneuro.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Halo</a>, the process "induces a temporary state of hyper-learning or 'hyperplasticity' in the brain, which refines the brain's ability to learn and adapt to training. This allows you to see better results, faster."It uses <a href="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/specialty_areas/brain_stimulation/tdcs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">transcranial direct-current stimulation, or tDCS</a>, a noninvasive stimulation that uses electrical currents to stimulate parts of the brain.After you download the <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/halo-sport/id1145104454?mt=8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Halo Sport app</a>, which controls the headset, you moisten the headset electrodes ("primers") and neuroprime for 20 minutes, during which time you feel a tingly sensation at the top of your head as the device stimulates your brain's motor cortex. All the while you can listen to music through the headphones using your phone or music player.After neuropriming, you have an hour of "afterglow" wherein you perform your most focused workout and, according to Halo, reap the greatest benefit.After the initial 20 minutes of neuropriming, you're effectively done benefiting from wearing the headset, but you can keep wearing it to listen to music. Once you complete one full 80-minute session - 20 minutes of neuropriming and 60 minutes of working out - you have to wait at least eight hours to begin another Halo session (though you can keep working out as normal). Talansky said he uses Halo three or four times a week, on average.As Halo's chief technology officer and cofounder, Dr. Brett Wingeier, further <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFX_F6BtaDI" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">explains</a> in a video: "Understanding the science behinds Halo Sport comes down to how the brain learns new skills. Repetition is the key ... That's why training works. Scientists call this 'neuroplasticity,' and it's how the brain learns how to control the body, and it's a big part of the gains you get from training."<h2>Halo in pro cycling</h2><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ypX4NKUXkM">YouTube/TechCrunch</a>Halo CEO and cofounder Daniel Chao introducing Halo Sport at TechCrunch in 2016.Talansky, 28, rides on the US <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/cannondale-drapac">Cannondale-Drapac</a> team. Born in New York City and raised in Florida, he's nicknamed "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/andrew-talansky-fought-courageously-in-tour-de-france-2014-7">Pit Bull</a>" for his grit. Notable victories are the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2014, the Tour de l'Ain in 2012, and a stage in May's Tour of California. He has finished 10th and 11th overall at the Tour de France, in 2013 and 2015, and seventh and fifth at the Vuelta a España, in 2012 and 2016.He's one of two WorldTour cyclists we know of using neuroscience, Halo or otherwise, as part of his regular training. Halo told Business Insider that Talansky is not one of its paid athletes and that he simply liked the product. Talansky told us he first heard about Halo through a staff member in the Cannondale-Drapac organization.As Talansky made clear to Business Insider, he does not suggest that the technology delivers results overnight. Instead, he emphasized that, for him, the benefit came from using it often over a period with many focused workouts.Business Insider spoke with Talansky by phone from his European base in Girona, Spain, on Friday, eight days before the start of the Tour de France, which begins in Düsseldorf, Germany, on July 1. He explained how he's been using Halo in the run-up to the world's biggest bike race and how he believes he's benefited from using the technology regularly in training.Daniel McMahon: How are you feeling going into the Tour, and what are you expecting?Andrew Talansky: I'm definitely excited for it, and I'm leaving it pretty open. That feeling of winning and crossing the line first ... I'd love to win a stage of the Tour de France. The Tour would be such a special place to win. I've been third on a stage, in my first year, in 2013. In 2015, I was really close to a stage win, ending up second. Getting that close to it gave me a little taste, because for a moment there I thought it was going to be possible to win that day, and that feeling is something I definitely want to go after this year.Given the Tour route this year, it'll reward aggressive racing. Unless you're one of maybe three people in the world right now who can legitimately win the Tour this year, then, you know, you're not looking to win the Tour. So the only way to win something is to win a stage. That's a big goal for myself and for the team.Bryn Lennon/Getty ImagesTalansky during the individual time trial at the 2017 Tour of California, where he finished third overall.McMahon: Who are the three who can win?Talansky: Froome, Porte, Quintana - maybe Contador. Three of them have already won a grand tour.McMahon: So how did you get into Halo?Talansky: In late fall I got hold of the headset and have been using it ever since. Incidentally, I got hold of it just before I broke my thumb this winter, which led me to spending a whole lot of time on the [indoor] trainer, which is probably where it's easiest to make use of the technology.McMahon: How do you like to use it?Talansky: With road cycling it's probably the trickiest sport to get the maximum benefit, given how it works. You do the 20-minute neuropriming cycle and then an hour of maximum effectiveness. The easiest way for me to do is in a higher-end workout, a big-gear workout, especially TT-oriented stuff, which tends to be shorter overall ride time and very specific efforts on the trainer.As you're warming up, you have the neuropriming going, then you dive into your core workout set throughout that next hour to get the maximum benefit. It's the higher-end intensity and the bigger-gear-oriented work, because with all of that, the goal is to improve your fitness but also your efficiency. Obviously, as you get deep into repeated high-intensity efforts, your form will naturally deteriorate, and that doesn't contribute at all to the effort, but it takes away watts and energy. So the more fluid and smooth you can be, the better everything is and the more power you're going to put out. That's one of the best applications for me with the Halo technology - just helping the body stay there.For example, in your first effort, if you're doing five-minute intervals - even if it's difficult and intense - you're going to be pretty smooth and fluid. On the sixth one, maybe you're going to be coming apart a bit. Halo has helped me improve staying efficient. There's also the benefit of you know, on race day, but the biggest benefit to be gained is in a lot of the training leading up that, the repeated use for targeted workouts.It's easy to use in the gym too. For me, doing core and leg sets, you have that one-hour window of maximum neuroplasticity. So while cycling may be the trickiest sport to apply it to, and using it for a road race is a little more difficult to use before, using it during your warm-up before a time-trial effort - the biggest advantage to be gained is in training, not just on race day. And the design is pretty perfect - putting it in the headphones - because I enjoy music and most people do.McMahon: How would you describe what it feels like to use? Can you feel the technology actually working as you're wearing the headset?Talansky: You can absolutely feel it. I'd say a tingling feeling is the best way to describe it. You can ratchet up or down the intensity, which, by the way, doesn't actually indicate how effective it is - say, a 7 instead of a 10 - it's more just for personal comfort. That said, I think most elite athletes leave it on the 10 because it's not uncomfortable by any means, and it's just our nature. Once you have it dialed, it's intuitive. It connects automatically to your phone when you open the app. It's simple.Chris Graythen/Getty ImagesTalansky won the queen climbing stage at the Tour of California atop Mount Baldy in May.McMahon: Is it something you feel the benefit from right away, or is it a deeper and longer-term thing?Talansky: To me, I'd go on the deep side. It's like training in the sense that you train and you might have one great day of training, but that's not what your race day is going to be. It'd not indicative of performance. It's the months and weeks leading up to it together that's going to put you where you are on that day - or, in my case, over three weeks. [Laughs] I'd say there's nothing where you're like, "I did 20 more watts today." But you can look at a time trial and maybe in the last 10 minutes of a 30-minute time trial where you start to become unraveled, like at the Dauphiné or California, and you still feel very solid on the bike, very fluid, able to keep the cadence up.It's just part of training. You're training your mind, you're training those receptors, you're training yourself to stay in that fluid state. So by no means should anyone expect an overnight improvement. But I really think in repetitive endurance and skills sports - which includes almost everything - there's a lot to be gained from helping from training the mind, and that's one area that's hardly touched. We're always training the body, but they're very, very connected.McMahon: Playing devil's advocate here, but do you really believe it has improved your performance?Talansky: If you want to dive into <a href="https://www.haloneuro.com/science" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the science behind it</a>, the science is sound. This is sound and not a gimmick, is what I'd say. Things work differently for everyone, obviously. That applies to training, nutrition, everything really. I'd say in elite endurance sports, professional and elite amateur - cycling, running, triathlon - people are always looking for the next shortcut or advantage. I've seen some people purchase incredible things, thinking it's going to make them better.But what I would say is, this is something that really does have the potential to make you better because it's not promising overnight success. It's saying, this can be another valuable training tool, the same way a power meter can be, or a heart-rate strap. It can be incorporated into your training three, four times a week, whenever your important workouts are. And maybe it doesn't work for everybody, but I'd bet anybody who gives it a chance and really sticks to it, using it at the right times with the right workouts, I would think they would see the results.<a href="https://blog.haloneuro.com/introducing-halo-sport-neurotechnology-for-athletes-fca25c662ab6">Halo Neuroscience</a>Halo Sport uses pulses of energy to improve the brain's response to training.McMahon: Do any of your teammates or other pros you know use it?Talansky: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pierre-rolland-cannondale-supersix-evo-2016-7">Pierre Rolland</a> uses it. And others ask questions about it and are intrigued. There's a curiosity. At this level, people aren't looking for a shortcut necessarily, but anything that will give a tenth of a percent to improve performance, and I think this can actually be a bit more than that. The way I really view it is, this is another training tool that I've incorporated on a regular basis. It fits well and is easy to make use of.McMahon: So will you use it at the Tour before the <a href="http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2017/us/overall-route.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">two time trials</a>? Talansky: That's the plan, definitely. And again, the ultimate benefit is what you get from training, but yeah, it doesn't hurt to use on game day as well. It's kind of one of the first legitimate products touching on the neuroplasticity, the neuro part of athletics. That's exciting because in terms of efficiency, like equipment-wise, we've pushed a lot of frontiers in endurance sports, kind of to their limits, so this is opening a new door. I'll be interested to see where it goes over the next several years.Halo sent Business Insider a headset to try out; see the photos below.

America's top cyclist entering the Tour de France has been using a portable brain stimulator to try to gain an edge, and he says it actually works

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Often as a child, I'd be lying in bed at night when everything around me would suddenly shrink and appear far away and tiny. </li><li>As I grew older, these odd illusions stopped happening, but I recently experienced the weird phenomenon again when I was tired and stressed.</li><li>A chance find of a newspaper article led me to discover that this is a rare neurological condition called <keyword id="124284" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Alice-In-Wonderland">Alice in Wonderland</keyword> syndrome.</li><li>The syndrome is rare and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4302569/">not dangerous,</a> though the causes of it are still <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4302569/">unknown</a>. </li></ul>It would always happen late at night.I would be lying in bed and <a href="https://www.insider.com/ways-youre-ruining-your-sleep-2019-5">gently winding down into sleep</a>. My eyes would begin to feel peculiar, as though they were being squeezed. Suddenly, I would notice that the room around me had begun to appear as if I were looking at it down the wrong end of a telescope. My bedroom furniture, my posters and ornaments, and the walls looked tiny, as though they were dollhouse-sized. At the same time, I felt huge, like I could reach out and touch the ceiling with my fingertips.Everything I could see had a warped, fish-eye quality to it. If I turned on my bedroom light, the room would suddenly switch back to normal, but the only other "cure" for this odd phenomenon was falling asleep.<h2>The episodes weren't scary, but I couldn't figure out why they were happening or what exactly they were </h2>This happened to me frequently when I was a kid, most often when I was especially tired, ill, or stressed. I didn't have the words to explain what was happening to me at night, I only knew that it felt unusual and dream-like - but I knew that I wasn't dreaming. When I told my parents that sometimes at night "everything looked small" they took me to an optician, where I discovered that I needed glasses and my prescription meant that I had a problem with depth perception.Problem solved, I thought. But the episodes kept happening.<div type="image" title="dollhouse" height="2423" width="4025" msid="78777889" hostid="261"></div>I wasn't frightened by these episodes where everything around me looked like a reflection in a fun-house mirror. I loved fairy tales, and what I was experiencing didn't seem odd in the context of <a href="https://www.insider.com/how-cinderella-is-different-in-every-movie">magic wands, evil stepmothers, and kids being able to talk to animals. </a>As I grew older, the episodes became more infrequent and, eventually, I forgot they had ever happened. But recently one night I was lying in bed, feeling tired and stressed, and I felt the same familiar tightening around my temples.Suddenly, the room around me shrunk to dollhouse proportions.Amazed, I stretched out my seemingly giant hand and felt as though I could easily touch the far-off wall opposite my bed.<h2>Eventually, I found an answer that led to even more questions </h2>Later that same week, I happened to discover a <a href="https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/23/alice-in-wonderland-syndrome/">New York Times article</a> that finally had an explanation, a name, and a diagnosis for what was happening to me - I had Alice in Wonderland syndrome. Discovered in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4909520/">1955</a> by <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/alice-in-wonderland-syndrome">British psychiatrist John Todd,</a> episodes of this <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4302569/">rare</a> curiosity, also known as Todd's syndrome, tend to involve macropsia (objects appearing larger than they are), <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25160537/">teleopsia</a> (objects appearing further away than they are), and micropsia (objects appearing smaller than they are).Some people who experience this perceive their own body parts as being larger or smaller than in reality, and the whole episode can be accompanied by a sense of derealization (feeling like things around you aren't real) and depersonalization (feeling detached from your own body or mind). It's sort of similar to what Alice experienced when she ate the mushroom in Lewis Carroll's famous book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and altered the size of her body - hence the name of the syndrome. The syndrome has been linked to migraines, epilepsy, strokes, head trauma, infections, drugs, and stress - but it's not known to be dangerous.It's also not yet clear what causes the illusions and distortions, although it's <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/alice-in-wonderland-syndrome#causes">not believed to be</a> a hallucination or an eyesight problem.<div type="image" title="alice in wonderland mushroom" height="821" width="1095" msid="78777891" hostid="261"></div>Some who have studied this under-researched syndrome believe it's caused by changes in the portion of the brain that processes how we see our environment, <a href="https://www.medicalbag.com/home/features/profile-in-rare-diseases/alice-in-wonderland-syndrome/#:~:text=of%20an%20episode.-,Dr.,other%20auras%2C%E2%80%9D%20she%20said.">possibly because of electrical activity which causes abnormal blood flow to that area.</a>Some doctors also believe it to be a type of <a href="https://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/alice-wonderland-syndrome">migraine aura</a>, which are sensory disturbances that can sometimes alter one's vision just before a migraine. <h2>A doctor who studied the syndrome said it commonly affects children - and it may be more common than we think </h2>Dr. Grant Liu, a pediatric neuro-ophthalmologist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said he's seen a lot of patients with "odd complaints" over the years."Kids complain of seeing things that are too small, too large, too close, and too far away," he told Insider. <a href="https://n.neurology.org/content/82/10_Supplement/S19.003">A few years ago, he conducted a study</a> into Alice in Wonderland syndrome where he examined and spoke to 48 patients who experienced symptoms between 1993 and 2013.He was able to link 33% of cases of the syndrome to exposure to infections (such as the flu), 6% to head trauma, and 6% to migraines. But in 52% of the cases, no cause was found.His research also found that although the syndrome typically affects young children, it continued until later in life for about a third of patients he studied. <div type="image" title="alice in wonderland" height="869" width="1159" msid="78777894" hostid="261"></div>But Dr. Liu said he was most fascinated by the familial link he's seen with the syndrome, which makes him think that it could be more common than people think. "For the study, we called families to follow up five to 15 years after diagnosing their children with Alice in Wonderland syndrome," he told Insider. "During those phone calls, lots of parents admitted that they too had experienced symptoms as children - but when they were in the exam room, they were too embarrassed to admit it."Although Dr. Liu said people experiencing Alice in Wonderland syndrome should see a specialist, as it can be a manifestation of a seizure or a migraine, he was quick to assure me that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4302569/">"there's no treatment necessary, it's really just reassurance."</a><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read More:</li></ul><a href="https://www.insider.com/people-less-lonely-if-they-have-empathy-compassion-wisdom-study-2020-9">People are less lonely when they embrace uncertainty and feel empathy, a study found</a><a href="https://www.insider.com/what-it-is-like-to-live-in-celebration-florida-2020-1">Disney once owned a town in Florida called Celebration, but the reality isn't very magical</a><a href="https://www.insider.com/breast-reduction-surgery-helped-me-lose-weight-2018-11">How getting breast-reduction surgery helped me lose 50 pounds and changed my life</a>

I have Alice in Wonderland syndrome, a rare neurological condition where everything around me looks dollhouse-sized

<a href="http://www.horizons.gc.ca/eng" target="_blank">Policy Horizons Canada</a> worked with futurist and data visualizer <a href="http://www.michellzappa.com/" target="_blank">Michell Zappa</a> of <a href="http://envisioningtech.com/" target="_blank">Envisioning</a> to produce a report called <a href="http://www.horizons.gc.ca/eng/content/metascan-3-emerging-technologies-0" target="_blank">MetaScan 3: Emerging Technologies</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/emerging-technologies-that-will-change-the-world-2014-4">accompanying infographics</a>. We are reproducing the summary for <a href="http://www.horizons.gc.ca/eng/content/neurotechnology-and-cognitive-technologies" target="_blank">emerging </a><a href="http://www.horizons.gc.ca/eng/content/neurotechnology-and-cognitive-technologies" target="_blank">neuro and cognitive technologies</a>.<a href="http://www.horizons.gc.ca/eng/content/neurotechnology-and-cognitive-technologies" target="_blank"></a>
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image">David Feinberg/PLoS ONEThe Human Connectome Project has led to new, faster, better ways to map the brain.</div></div></div>Below are technologies related to neuro and cognitive under three key areas of accelerating change: Neural Network Computing, Extended Cognition and Neural Interfaces. Neural network computing will lead to improvements in computer vision and analysis, such as detecting emotions and moods, which may have safety and security applications. Extended cognition involves more direct connection to people's brains, allowing mood, thought patterns and information to be altered in the brain. Neural interfaces get information out of people's brains more efficiently, ultimately allowing a machine-enabled form of telepathy.
We have included predictions based on consultation with experts of when each technology will be scientifically viable (the kind of stuff that Google, governments, and universities develop), mainstream (when VCs and startups widely invest in it), and financially viable (when the technology is generally available on Kickstarter).
<h2>Neural Network Computing</h2>
Proactive software agents: Software applications with the capacity of discerning and predicting likely future needs for whomever is being served. Intelligently scheduling meetings, sorting email and selectively notifying the user are potential usages.
Scientifically viable today; mainstream in 2016; financially viable in 2017.
Neural network image recognition: Using hundreds of thousands of processor cores programmed to algorithmically determine the content of a given image. Different from reverse image search, neural network image recognition has the capacity to successfully understand the photo of, for example, a cat, based on thousands of cat pictures.
Scientifically viable today; mainstream in 2021; financially viable in 2022.
Emotion tracking: Using sensors, computer vision and algorithms to correctly identify the likely emotions displayed by individuals in a crowd. Useful in airports and other high-risk facilities.
Scientifically viable today; mainstream in 2018; financially viable in 2019.
Predictive group sentiment analysis: Predicting the likely behavior of large groups of people based on sociometric input variables like social tension, weather variation, pedestrian flows and degree of agitation is becoming increasingly possible.
Scientifically viable in 2022; mainstream in 2023; financially viable in 2027.
Predictive crime prevention: The use of sociometric sensors coupled with neural networked computers to statistically determine the probability of crime (or other anti-social behavior) taking place before it happens.
Scientifically viable in 2021; mainstream in 2026; financially viable in 2027.
<h2>Extended Cognition</h2>
Neural biofeedback: Biofeedback using real-time EEG or fMRI to illustrate brain activity, often with a goal of controlling the central nervous actions.
Scientifically viable today; mainstream in 2015; financially viable in 2017.
Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers: A relatively new concept in the field of ultrasonic transducers where the energy transduction is due to change in capacitance. Can be used to remotely improve alertness, awareness in soldiers, etc.
Scientifically viable in 2016; mainstream in 2019; financially viable in 2020.
Next-generation neuropharmacology: Both behavioral and molecular neuropharmacology are benefitting from rapidly accelerating change. With an increase in technology and improved understanding of the nervous system, the development of drugs will continue to rise with an increase in drug sensitivity and specificity. (Such as neuropharmacological enhancements that work better than caffeine).
Scientifically viable in 2018; mainstream in 2021; financially viable in 2023.
Neuroprosthetics: Neural devices capable of substituting motor, sensory or cognitive modalities that might have been damaged as a result of an injury or a disease. Applications include neural enhancements, advanced cognitive features and extended physiological senses.
Scientifically viable in 2021; mainstream in 2026; financially viable in 2027.
<h2>Neural Interfaces</h2>
EEG brain-to-computer interfaces: Electroencephalography remains the most feasible practice of executing and implementing brain to brain interfaces. It represents the best temporal-resolution tool for getting a picture of the brain in action, is portable, non-invasive and extremely affordable compared to other methods.
Scientifically viable and mainstream today; financially viable in 2021.
High-resolution fMRI: The next generation of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging involves increasing the spatial and temporal resolution of the imagery. We are likely to see a 14-tesla machines becoming common (as opposed to today's 3-tesla).
Scientifically viable today; mainstream in 2023; financially viable in 2024.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation: TMS is a noninvasive method to cause depolarization or hyperpolarization in the neurons of the brain using electromagnetic induction to induce weak electric currents using a rapidly changing magnetic field. This can cause activity in specific or general parts of the brain with minimal discomfort, allowing the functioning and interconnections of the brain to be studied.
Scientifically viable today; mainstream in 2019; financially viable in 2022 .
Optogenetic implants in humans: The combination of genetic and optical methods to control specific events in targeted cells of living tissue, even within freely moving mammals and other animals, with the temporal precision (millisecond timescale) needed to keep pace with functioning intact biological systems.
Scientifically viable in 2021; mainstream and financially viable in 2026.
Next-generation brain-to-computer interfaces: Hypothetical interfaces to be used for assisting, augmenting, or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions and communicate thoughts and intentions to the Internet.
Scientifically viable in 2020; mainstream in 2022; financially viable in 2027.
Brain-to-brain interfaces: The hypothetical implementation of brain interfaces that translate thoughts, sensations or impulses into digital signal, converting the data back into the recipient's brain to enable a certain response from both ends. Loosely interpreted as telepathy, brain interfaces would be able to transmit information from one person so another without any mediation other than the internet, allowing the brain on the receiving end to perform behavioural tasks without training.
Scientifically viable in 2025; mainstream in 2026; financially viable in 2027.

15 Emerging Neurotechnologies That Will Change The World

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image">Carsten Rehder/dapd/AP</div></div></div>Admen have made a marketing guru of Daniel Kahneman, a prizewinning psychologist
FIRST, you realise it's a gorilla. The opening strains of Phil Collins's "In the Air Tonight" are playing; the beast is enraptured. As the camera pulls back, you see that he's seated at a drum kit. He flexes, raises his drumsticks, then brings them resoundingly down. Only in the final frames do you discover that the gorilla is pitching Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate.
The advert, released in 2007, should not have worked. Conventional wisdom doubted that a jolt of joy from a drumming primate, however rhythmically gifted, would spur sales of chocolate bars. A member of the team that developed the ad says that when it was passed to Millward Brown, the world's biggest tester of adverts, the firm found that it scored poorly among women on its measures of "awareness" and "brand appeal" and about average among men (Millward Brown says it did better on other measures). Yet Cadbury went ahead, and was rewarded with millions of online views, better perceptions of its brand and higher sales. Return on investment was three times the average for packaged-goods marketing campaigns.
Behind Cadbury's simian success was an unlikely inspiration: Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist who won a Nobel Prize in 2002 for showing that people are not the rational agents that economists had thought they were. He argues, most famously in "Thinking, Fast and Slow", a 2011 book popularising his work, that the mind (human, that is, not gorilla) incorporates two systems: an intuitive "system one", which makes many decisions automatically, and a calculating but lazy "system two", which rationalises system one's ideas and sometimes overrules them. For Mr Kahneman's disciples <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword> is above all a way to groom system one, to nudge consumers towards a buy.
<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image"><keyword id="425741" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="The-Economist">The Economist</keyword></div></div></div>Going through the emotions</h3>
Kahnemanite advertising prizes emotion over information and pays more attention to a brand's "purpose" than to its products. It exploits system one's propensity to react to subtle cues. In a print advert for a Betty Crocker pie, a version with the fork placed on the right triggered a 20% higher "purchase intent" than one with the fork on the left (because most people eat with their right hands). This demands not just new ways of making adverts but new methods for judging if they will work. Researchers must "laser in on measuring emotion as almost the single metric" that predicts success, says John Kearon of BrainJuicer, a market-research firm.
This season's crop of televisual tear-jerkers reflects such thinking. A sweaty game of wheelchair basketball ends with all the players but one walking out of the gym. "The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character," intones the voice-over, in the hope that one of those choices will be to drink Guinness stout. In the gauzy Christmas offering of Britain's Royal Mail, posties of many colours deliver parcels in all weathers, accompanied by an a cappella rendition of the Beatles' "All You Need is Love".
Of course, admen were aiming at system one long before they had heard of it: "sex sells" is one of the oldest mottos in the business, after all. Even information-packed adverts that seem to be appealing to reason are really playing on emotions, points out Mr Kahneman, who does not give advice to marketers.
His followers are inclined to dispense with system two altogether. Marketers at Procter &amp; Gamble, maker of Tide detergent and Pampers nappies, were trained to get across the "single benefit" that a product would give its purchaser, says Jim Stengel, a former marketing chief at the firm, now a consultant. "There was not a whole lot of recognition of emotional connection with a brand or company." But that has changed. P&amp;G's tribute to athletes' mothers during last year's Olympics was aimed directly at the syrupy soul of system one.
Rare is the marketer today who does not spout systemic terminology, but there are disagreements over how to divine what system one is feeling, and over the role of system two. In testing an advert before it goes to market, BrainJuicer asks subjects to say which of eight faces, each expressing a different emotion, best reflects the feeling it arouses and how intense it is. The firm tested the gorilla advert after its release. It scored the highest emotional-intensity marks (viewers felt happiness and surprise) of any advert to that point.
Decode, a rival, uses "implicit association", in which subjects associate images (say of a chocolate bar) with concepts (perhaps "comfort") and their reactions are timed. The faster the response, the deeper the link between the two. Decode, acting independently of Cadbury, found that the gorilla advert conjured up "security" and "enjoyment" better than a less-popular successor involving drag-racing trucks, which had unchocolatey overtones of "adventure" (see diagram).
Some say the most telling signals are biological. Neuro-Insight, an Australian outfit, monitors electrical activity in viewers' brains. When viewers watched the Cadbury advert, signals that suggested images were being stored in long-term memory peaked three times: when subjects recognised a gorilla, when they saw the drums and, encouragingly for Cadbury, when the brand appeared.
Everyone gangs up on Millward Brown, perhaps in part because its losses could be their gains. Its surveys tease out such things as how "engaging" an advert is by asking viewers to answer a series of questions, a system-two task that masks system one's reactions, say critics. Admen resent its emphasis on "persuasion", which predicts short-term sales but seems deadeningly rational. For such "creatives", permission to pack a purely emotional wallop feels liberating.
Millward Brown has always probed for emotional responses, insists Graham Page, its head of consumer neuroscience. People are aware of their feelings, so it is legitimate to discover them by asking questions. The new biometric techniques are useful for finding out how people came to feel as they do. Mr Page says Millward Brown has worked more with them than any other firm.
Furthermore, he says, do not underrate system two. It usually interacts with the system-one response to reach a decision. That is why passengers overcome their reflexive aversion to some budget airlines; guided by hard-headed system two, they buy the cheap tickets. Still, Mr Page admits, researchers used to focus too much on thinking. Now Millward Brown is as keen as anyone to plumb consumers' instincts.
There is an irony in this. Most readers of Mr Kahneman's bestseller will end up mistrusting system one for its propensity to mislead. Not marketing folk. System one craves chocolate.
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