Everyday life teems with mistakes both large and small. Fallible humans spill water or drive past the intersection where they were supposed to turn. Now, researchers at the University of California, Davis and Donders Institute in the Netherlands, report on the discovery of a method that might predict errors from the trivial to the tragic. Ali Mazaheri, at left, a research fellow at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, has developed an electromagnetic brain imaging technique termed magnetoencephalography—a non-invasive procedure that is more sensitive than the electroencephalography used by hospitals to detect seizures. Mazaheri subjected volunteers to a test developed in the 1990s known as the “sustained attention response task.”The task is purposely tedious, monotonous, and boring and just about invites inattention and error in even the most conscientious subjects. After analyzing data, it was found that just before errors were made brain waves in two regions of the brain were much stronger than they were when subjects responded correctly. In the back of the head (the occipital region) alpha wave activity was 25 percent higher; and in the middle region, the sensorimotor cortex, there was a corresponding increase. These alpha and mµ rhythms are indicators that the brain is “idling.” Researchers hope that these findings might one day lead to practical use such as developing new therapies for ADH children or warning air traffic controllers of the need to refocus to avoid possible calamity.Learn more from the UC Davis press release.
EM Brain Imaging & Errors
