In my research, I am currently witnessing a real revolution where medical technologies used in research laboratories are starting to come out and spread to the general public. Here is a selection. These devices bear the evocative names of Melomind, Muse, Dreem, Muse, Thync, iWinks and Halo Sport.
They are currently sold to the general public or about to be. They all propose to act on the brain to improve its functioning, that is to say to increase the concentration, the well-being, the sleep , the perceptions but also the dream or the mood. A wave of technological innovations is about to touch our daily lives.
Melomind, to increase your well-being
The Melomind headphones (whose name is the association of melody and mind , melody and spirit ) allow you to learn to relax. This technology from the French startup MyBrain Technologies is based on an old idea, neurofeedback, invented in the 1950s.
In appearance, the Melomind looks like headphones. Put it on your head and it starts to produce music. On the other hand, the peculiarity is that this music is controlled by your brain activities recorded by small electrodes placed at the back of the head. This music parameterized on the relaxation of the brain , the system will guide you towards a deeper and deeper state of relaxation. Like an athlete training his muscles every day, you train your brain to relax on a daily basis.
Muse, the device for meditating
The Muse connected headband from the Canadian company InteraXon offers something new: to help meditate ! The application asks you to put the phone down and adopt a comfortable posture, shoulders relaxed, back straight and eyes closed. Then she invites to become aware of his breathing and to concentrate on the exhalation.
Then, it is a question of thinking of nothing other than the breathing. The app makes sounds of wind and waves to indicate the level of attention; the more distracted your brain is, the louder the sounds of wind and waves. If you hear calm seas and the chirping of birds, then your attention is focused. This is the state to be maintained throughout the duration of the session.
At the end, the smartphone traces the course of brain activity in the form of a curve so that you can follow when you were attentive or distracted. At the end of several sessions, you will gradually learn to no longer be distracted by noise and parasitic considerations and you will permanently improve your attention. It is now established that this type of training has a beneficial effect on well-being and reduces stress (and therefore the devastating effects on the cardiovascular system or on the immune defenses against infections and inflammation.
Dreem, to sleep better
The Dream headband, from the French startup Rythm, improves so-called deep sleep. More precisely, it is a particular period which plays a crucial role in the regeneration of the organism. This deep sleep occupies 20% of the total sleep time. It is the deep phase which is the most restorative for the body and makes fatigue disappear. Recent results show that this phase allows the evacuation of toxins that accumulate in the brain during the day.
The sleep is therefore a real shower that washes our brain. In addition, sleep plays a major role in the proper functioning of our memory. Indeed, it is thanks to the periods of deep sleep that we consolidate the memory of our recent memories, so that we can store the memories for the long term. In the brain, this phase of sleep is characterized by very slow waves.
The idea of the Dream system is to increase these waves with little noises synchronized with them. Deep, restorative sleep is then artificially reinforced, with all its beneficial effects.
Thync, to choose your mood
The Thync helmet offers you to change your mood on command ... Using two electrodes which are placed on the forehead and the back of the neck, this system produces a calming or energizing effect, at will. According to the manufacturers, the first effect is comparable to a glass of wine and the second to that of a cup of coffee.
A dedicated application on a mobile phone or tablet allows you to manage these effects and adjust the intensity of the stimulation as you wish. The effect lasts for several hours after use. Although the modes of operation of the device remain obscure, the device most likely stimulates the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system through the nerves in the skull.
The iWinks headband: the dream of controlling your dreams
The feeling of being conscious in the dream that one is living is called a "lucid dream". The dreamer then has the opportunity to better enjoy the sensations he provides, such as during a movie or a play. Indeed, everything that scares you in everyday life is under control here. Everything becomes possible and the experience is exhilarating.
But the dream lucid could go even further because the mind can explore its creativity at leisure. This is what makes the Italian musician Tartini Giusseppe the XVIII th century. His dream has remained famous because he asked the devil to help him compose one of his most beautiful sonatas: that of the devil's trills ... On the other hand, even if lucid dreaming appears spontaneously in some sleepers, it is is an experience that remains rare.
The iWinks headband facilitates the induction of lucid dreams. This system indicates by a small light on the eyes that the dream has started. Unlike a normal awakening, this device detects eye movements and rings at the precise moment of the dream. In dreams, the visual field is punctuated with bright spots to help enter a state of lucidity without waking up.
Halo Sport, to increase your strength
The Halo Sport device, developed by the Californian startup Halo Neuroscience, hardly differs from ordinary headphones. Except, on its inside, by a brush dotted with small plastic pins flexible which are arranged on the top of the head. They are, in fact, small electrodes intended to transmit tiny electrical impulses through the skull into the motor cortex ; this region of the brain is crucial because it controls planning and voluntary movements.
Stimulated by the device, the neurons send amplified signals to the muscles which then gain in energy and power. However, while this technology is attractive, the long-term effects are unknown. And in the field of sport , it is an electronic form of doping , completely undetectable after use by sports authorities. So, be careful with this new technology.
A jacket to feel the tweets
David Eagleman is a brilliant scientist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. During a TED talk, he showcased an amazing jacket, bearing numerous knots converting information from the web into vibrations. . In particular, Twitter messages , posted by spectators during his conference, were transmitted to him in the form of vibrations, the pattern of which varied according to the positive or negative character of the tone of the messages.
While speaking, he could follow in real time the generally favorable opinions of the public in the form of a pleasant back massage. According to the researcher, these new forms of technology will, in the long term, expand human sensory capacities. This VEST device ( Versatile extra-sensory transducer , or Transducer of extra-sensory variables, in French) was the subject of of a Kickstarter campaign last year.
Discover the author's book at Flammarion: Improve your brain , yes, but not just any old way. Memory, concentration, mood, sleep: the real power of neuroscience.