How does your brain change itself?

Three neuroscience artists illustrate the way

This week I watched the “Neuroscience as visual art” panel of the Neuromatch 3.0 conference. The panel initially caught my eye because one of the artists presenting was Greg Dunn, a neuroscientist whose “Self Reflected” is the most complex visualization of the human brain in existence.

Panelist Michele Banks enjoys making “art that’s about the thing that you’re making it with,” and that is exactly what is happening here. As I look at “Self Reflected,” I am watching my own brain perceive itself, as light bounces off the gilded microetched polymer plates in limitless ways.

The brain is both art object and artist, creator and creation. This is one of the governing principles of Laura Jade’s Brainlight, which uses dendrite-microetched perspex panels, a wireless EEG headset, and a computer program to translate the electrical activity of the viewer’s brain into light or sound. A brain producing slower, daydreamy theta waves will cause the brain to glow green, while a faster, but still relaxed, alpha brain state produces blue. The highest frequency — beta — creates an excited pink.