The Technology Behind the "Headbang" Project
Ian S. Baker
Koestler Parapsychology Unit
The University of Edinburgh

The "Headbang" Project was recorded using a device called a digital electroencephalogram, or EEG. The EEG is an incredibly sensitive device that uses small electrodes, or sensors, which are placed on the surface of the head in order to pick-up the tiny electrical impulses that are generated by the surface of the brain. These impulses are so small that the fields that they generate are around 200,000,000,000,000 (or 200 million million) times smaller than the fields generated by a common household magnet.

The EEG is one of the oldest methods for measuring brain activity. It was invented by Hans Berger in the 1920s and it remains in use in hospitals and universities all over the world to this day. It is used as a diagnostic tool for certain brain disorders, and it is also used as a research tool to investigate how our brains process all kinds of stimuli, including how we interpret visual images, how our memory works, and how we understand language. It is the origin of the word "brainwaves", as you can see by the wave-like recordings of the brain activity.

It is possible for us to analyse these waves of activity in several different ways. By repeatedly showing a stimulus, like the image of a face, to a person over and over again, we can average out all of the "noise" in the activity of the brain (such as thinking about yesterday's episode of "Eastenders", or what you are going to have for dinner), and see how people process that stimulus down to a thousandth of a second (or a millisecond). Alternatively, it is possible to measure a person's brain activity for several hours overnight and examine the different states of activity people show, including watching them dream.

In our lab we are conducting controversial research where one of the things we are attempting to do is to see what types of brain activity might be associated with the processing of anomalous phenomena. For example, this includes examining whether or not one person can have an influence on the brain activity of another person, even though they are separated in different rooms over 25 metres apart.

The waveforms for the "Headbang" show the normal brain activity of Victoria as measured by a network, or web, of over 40 electrodes that were placed on her head. The violent head movement, or "Headbang", that Victoria then made produced huge muscle movements that were then picked-up by these enormously sensitive sensors. This produced a huge distortion in the waves.

This piece is particularly interesting because the violent movement that Victoria produces is exactly the sort of movement that researchers and clinician's try to avoid when testing people. The EEG is so sensitive it can easily detect a person even blinking (try and see if you can spot the blinks in the normal part of the recording), so a large muscle movement of any type is very dramatic.

I am particularly happy to be part of this linkage between science and art, because I have always thought that the EEG waves are very beautiful and they go beyond a mere research tool. However, it has taken Victoria's ability as an artist to demonstrate the importance of the EEG in a truly different sense.

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