The EEG Mixer

Since Omni Brain has a post about the wonderfully enticing BrainBar, what's a bar and EEG without the requisite Electroencephalogram Cocktail Party??

The Science of Love

In Joyce Draganosky's The Science of Love, the battle between reason and emotion takes center stage. A professor, who believes she has found a way of determining scientifically whether someone is in love, clashes with her department chair, a woman who thinks love and attraction are far too complex to be mapped according to the certainties of science.

Looks like a must-see short film if it ever comes to a city near you. But anyone can check out the clip on the web site above, which includes the hilarious "Electroencephalogram Cocktail Party" OR "The EEG Mixer"!! We can certainly forgive the confusion of fMRI and EEG results for artistic sake (and comic effect) here. The director seems to have modeled her lead character after Helen Fisher, even down to the combination of evolutionary anthropology with brain imaging. Joy Hirsh at Columbia was a scientific consultant.

But back to real life (Touching the Invisible is an art exhibition currently appearing in Stockholm, then in an unnamed locale in Canada).

Brainbar is a bar which serves you the drink you deserve. According to your state of mind at the time of ordering the drink, your brainwaves determine the metabolism between the machine and your own body.

The guest places the headband with biosensors on the forehead and then places the glass in the cylinder on the bar’s front side, to begin the reading. The biosensors then measure the state of the guest’s brain activity levels – shown with a flashing red light. The bar then administers the proper fluids for the guest’s psyche from the eight bottles and when the lamp flashes green the guest is allowed to remove the glass and enjoy the drink. The person can then join the party, confident that the fluids reacting with the internal metabolism are going to enhance the experience of that particular social event.

Although it's too late for this year's SFN meeting in Atlanta, perhaps the Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Social should plan now for their 2007 event in San Diego (Nov. 3-7)!!