How fast can you train your brain?
What is a BCI (brain-computer interface) ?
A brain-computer interface (BCI) is a direct communication link between the brain’s electrical activity and an external device. BCIs are often directed at researching, mapping, augmenting or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions.
My project
The goal of this project is using a BCI device to develop a granular and measurable understanding of brain processes during training and competing – and ultimately improve training efficiency and performance for sport climbers.
The bouldering discipline of climbing requires athletes to “solve” a problem, through a specific set of “moves” between a starting and an ending point on the wall. During training and competitions, athletes use “mental rehearsing” or “sequencing”, visualising the sequence before actually executing moves.
For this project, I am interested in using a BCI device to measure various EEG components ( i.e. High/Low Alpha, High/Mid/Low Beta waves) during “mental rehearsing/sequencing”, in various training and competing scenarios; while also tracking the success/failure of subsequent climb attempts.
Hopefully the project would yield a measurable way of understanding how brain processes correlate with training efficacy and performance. Such an understanding would have potential applicability in other fields requiring motor learning besides competitive sports.
Luca Benga 