title: The Brainarium: An Interactive Immersive Tool for Brain Education, Art, and Neurotherapy.
abstract: Recent theoretical and technological advances in neuroimaging techniques now allow brain electrical activity to be recorded using affordable and user-friendly equipment for nonscientist end-users. An increasing number of educators and artists have begun using electroencephalogram (EEG) to control multimedia and live artistic contents. In this paper, we introduce a new concept based on brain computer interface (BCI) technologies: the Brainarium. The Brainarium is a new pedagogical and artistic tool, which can deliver and illustrate scientific knowledge, as well as a new framework for scientific exploration. The Brainarium consists of a portable planetarium device that is being used as brain metaphor. This is done by projecting multimedia content on the planetarium dome and displaying EEG data recorded from a subject in real time using Brain Machine Interface (BMI) technologies. The system has been demonstrated through several performances involving an interaction between the subject controlling the BMI, a musician, and the audience during series of exhibitions and workshops in schools. We report here feedback from 134 participants who filled questionnaires to rate their experiences. Our results show improved subjective learning compared to conventional methods, improved entertainment value, improved absorption into the material being presented, and little discomfort.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition, Université de Grenoble, Grenoble, BSHM, 1251 av Centrale CS40700, 38058 Grenoble Cedex 9, France; CNRS, UMR 5105, Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Romain
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0786-1319
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Grandchamp
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition (CerCo), Université Paul Sabatier, Pavillon Baudot, Hopital Purpan, BP 25202, 31052 Toulouse Cedex 3, France; CNRS, UMR 5549, Toulouse, France; Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, Institute of Neural Computation (INC), University of San Diego California, La Jolla, CA 92093-0559, USA.
authors.forename: Arnaud
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0799-3557
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Delorme
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D062207:Brain-Computer Interfaces; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005246:Feedback; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008328:Man-Machine Systems; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014584:User-Computer Interface