Brain waves and rappers

[melluransa]

They did an EEG on Zico, a rapper from South Korea. First - for entertainment purposes - they made him compose a rap about the homunculus and the sensory and motor cortices. That was neat! I learned about those last semester.

Then they did the experiment. They recorded the electric activity in his brain when looking at images. I suspect that these images cause standardized, "normal" patterns of electric activity. That was the pre-test. Then, they had him recite something. I don't know if it was just random stuff, or relevant to the test, or what. The researcher in me wants to know what they gave him to read, but anyway... They did a post-test of the same image thing. Results showed more electric activity in the post-test, which is a "better performance."

BUT listen here, there could have just been more activity simply because it was a second exposure to the test that was administered so soon after the first. And did he know he'd take it a second time, or did they "blind" him? Does recitation of random words, which is a visual-motor-language activity, really help with a visual images test? My research methods teacher would laugh at this experiment. Despite all that, it holds entertainment value because Zico is a celebrity and actually a pretty awesome guy imo. He had dreadlocks once and I love his voice and his raps.

Comments

[zeph317toho.livejournal.com]

It's so neat how all the different tests they have can show so much about our brains! I like the EEG because it's not as scary as some of the scans. It was really cool that he agreed to do this and be filmed! Even if it wasn't as highly regulated as it probably should have been for a true scientific study, like you said.

[melluransa.livejournal.com]

Well, Zico is just cool like that. :3

EEGs are neat! They're noninvasive too, which is good. I like fMRI's even more! They have so many cool kinds of MRI scans. Some can even highlight the tracts that nerves follow, like wires all over. So neat!!!

I've been scientific study-ized. I have standards for research and experiments now, and it is so weird since I didn't use to care. All thanks to that monster of a class I took on this stuff! We even had to design our own research study and write a fake scientific journal article about it. That was probably the most effective way for me to learn it was to make me make my own and apply the rules to myself and my own ideas. That teacher is brilliant.