Stochastic Resonance
“Stochastic Resonance” is a solo performance in which brain activity is translated into sound in real time with improvised cello accompaniment. I use an EEG headset to measure the electrical activity in my brain, and the fluctuating electronic sounds are mapped to my alpha waves.
Alpha waves are the most prominent rhythm of the brain and are associated with attention. They become stronger during meditative states, which I experience when I play music—as I become more deeply immersed in the music, my alpha waves increase, and the electronic sounds expand.
“Vagusstoff”: The heart-brain connection
2024 Art of Neuroscience Honorable Mention
“Vagusstoff” explores the intimate connection between the heart and brain—a connection that is electrical, chemical, and rhythmic. The distinct “pulses” of this track reflect theta oscillations in the brain and natural variation in heart rhythms.
“Vagusstoff” parallels my recent research demonstrating that heart activity can modulate brain rhythms. In a sense, the track is a science experiment itself—I wanted to hear what physiological rhythms sound like as they interact.
This piece is also an homage to Otto Loewi’s original discovery of the chemical connection between the brain and heart. Otto Loewi came up with the idea for his famous “frog heart” experiment in a dream.
Animation by Adam Hersko-RonaTas. Composed, performed, and produced by Kaia Sargent. Mixed and mastered by David Yu.
On mature consideration, in the cold light of the morning, I would not have done it. After all, it was an unlikely enough assumption that the vagus should secrete an inhibitory substance; it was still more unlikely that a chemical substance that was supposed to be effective at very close range between nerve terminal and muscle be secreted in such large amounts that it would spill over and, after being diluted by the perfusion fluid, still be able to inhibit another heart. (Loewi 1921)
Quantified Self: Teaching neuroscience through sound
Led by Dr. Suzanne Dikker at New York University, a team of neuroscientists and educators is developing a curriculum to teach high school students about neuroscience, physiology, and data science. We are developing an interactive web app that allows students to record and experience their own brainwaves through artistic visualization and sonification.
The app is freely available to use and explore (but is most fun with an EEG headset!):
Representation of brain rhythms using binaural beats. Students can manually adjust the balance of different frequencies, or connect with an EEG device to hear their own brain activity. Designed and built by Kaia Sargent.
Mutual Wave Machine: Exploring brain-to-brain synchrony
Mutual Wave Machine at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Lisbon, Portugal (2021). Sound design by Kaia Sargent and Nima Karimi.
When you “vibe” with someone, do your brainwaves literally synchronize with each other?
The Mutual Wave Machine is an immersive audiovisual neurofeedback installation developed by neuroscientist Dr. Suzanne Dikker and digital artist Matthias Dikker. Two visitors sit face-to-face in an enclosed capsule, while EEG is recorded and analyzed in real time to measure the participants’ brainwave synchrony. The lights and sounds change in response to fluctuations in neural synchrony, which has been found to correlate with social closeness and feelings of connectedness.
The Mutual Wave Machine has been displayed at art museums and music festivals all over the world, and has been used to collect EEG data from thousands of participants to date.
Towards Neurosemiotics: Ongoing Neural Activity as Brain Music
Presented by Dr. Michael Jacob at the 2021 International Society for Biosemiotic Studies conference
Semiosis is the study of how signs convey meaning; neurosemiosis is an emerging field bridging neuroscience and philosophy that explores how brain activity constructs representations of our reality. In his presentation, Dr. Jacob argues that dynamical attractors form the fundamental “sign vehicles” of the brain, and that mental experience arises from the interactions of multiple attractors. Using music as a metaphor, Dr. Jacob illustrates how superimposed attractors can complement or conflict each other and create moments of harmonic consonance or dissonance.
A Lorenz attractor, whose behavior is determined by randomly-generated musical intervals. Sound and visuals by Kaia Sargent.