AUTO-TUNE FOR THE BRAIN Having gone global with its ‘Brainwave Optimization’ technology, Airpark-based Brain State Technologies is aiming to become the Fitbit of the brain. y immy
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n a two-story office building just east of the Scottsdale Airport runway, behind closed doors in nearly a dozen small acoustically treated rooms, people sit silently on zero-gravity chairs with sensors affixed to their scalps, making music using only their minds. It could be the latest progression in digital music ma ing, ta ing o from uto- une s ability to perfect a melody from even poorly sung notes to bypassing the human voice entirely, sending the music of each individual s imagination directly from t e brain to the instrument. ut t is is not ting s latest e ploration into blending neuroscience and music, or some secret songwriting sweatshop behind pop s ne est edis it factory is is rain tate ec nologies, ead uarters of t e orld s leading provider of rain ave balancing technology,” a noninvasive process said to facilitate relaxation through what its developer calls an auto-cali ration of neural oscillations.” Come to think of it, you could call at s going on ere a ind of auto-tuning for the brain. t s ust li e o t e t o prongs on a tuning fork work,” says Lee Gerdes, Brain tate s founder and O, o invented t e tec nology ou stri e one, t e ot er ears it and starts resonating t e same ay asically e re doing t e same t ing it
the right and left hemispheres of the brain.” Gerdes, 70, is a former project leader at a Minneapolis-based tech company dealing in colla orative ltering algorit ms t in Netflix recommendations), with a heady education in math, physics, engineering, clinical psychology and theology. But
The B-2 is a wearable version of Brain State's brainwave optmization technology.
16 | Scottsdale Airpark News September 2016
t e affa le O as a do n-to-eart , self-deprecating manner and a knack for e plaining complicated su ects in simpli ed strokes. at e re doing ere is not roc et science ell, actually, it s rain science, e says, it a laug ut it s really simple e put sensors on your scalp, and e put earphones in your ears, and the computer listens to your brainwaves, correlates the dominant fre uencies in t e middle of your brain pattern to sound, and plays that sound ac to you nd t at s all e do It may sound like a throwback to the iofeed ac fad of t e 70s and erdes ac no ledges some similarities ot modalities use electroencephalograph, or , instruments, for one ut ereas iofeed ac and neurofeed ac , for t at matter) seeks to compare brainwave readings against a normative database and train participants to exert some control over their physiology to bring readings in line it at s considered normal, erdes patented process, which he calls Brainwave Optimi ation, simply mirrors t e readings back to the brain, through musical notes, and lets the brain correct itself. e rain is t e most in nite system in t e universe, e e plains f you re going to scre around it it, you d etter e really, really smart. So what we do is, we