While NIRS may be an appropriate measurement technique for measuring brain activity during daily tasks, the relationship between NIRS activity and modifications to the BS is not currently understood.
For this study, the researchers focused on measuring brain activity, looking at more than 100 children, ages 1 to 17, who were born deaf and had the implants put it at various ages.
Although the technique that Güntürkün used, called dichotic listening, isn't as precise as laboratory techniques for measuring brain activity, his results, published in today's issue of Current Biology, are tantalizing.
These air pockets of inner experience have been difficult for psychologists to study scientifically and, as a result, researchers have mostly resorted to measuring brain activity as the sleeper lies passive.
Thus, painstakingly, a map of which parts of the brain do what can be built up.Over the past decade, however, machines for measuring brain activity have proliferated.
By measuring brain activity, monitoring patterns of eye movement and scanning the environment around the car, the team thinks the car will be able to predict what a driver is planning to do and help him or her complete the manoeuvre safely.
The problem with testing these in a proper sleep lab (the test is called a polysomnogram) is that you generally have at least 22 wires attached to you to measure brain activity (EEG), eye movements (EOG), skeletal muscle activation (EMG), heart rhythm (ECG), respiration, and sometimes peripheral pulse oximetry.
The technology measures brain activity in real time, by monitoring blood flow.
They used a method called transcranial magnetic stimulation to measure brain activity in the dance spectators.
Using magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity, he found that the brain had a limited capacity for carrying out two tasks at once.
This is partly because it is hard to measure brain activity in someone who is moving, and partly because metal cannot be taken into an MRI scanner.
