2023-08-14 07:00:00
Daily pleasures good for the brain? Yes, according to the results of a study published in Nature Scientific ReportsAugust 8, 2023.
According to researchers from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering in New York in the United States, listening to music and drinking coffee can influence a person’s brain activity in such a way as to improve their cognitive performance, particularly in tasks requiring concentration and memory.
Cognitive functions: music helps you work better
To achieve this result, the scientists used a new brain monitoring technology called MINDWATCH. This is an algorithm that analyzes a person’s brain activity from data collected by any wearable device capable of monitoring electrodermal activity (EDA). This activity reflects changes in electrical conductance triggered by emotional stress, linked to sweating responses, the authors explain.
Cognitive tests performed with this method found that music and coffee measurably altered participants’ brain arousal, essentially putting them in a “mindset“physiological likely to modulate their performance in the working memory tasks they performed.
This was especially the case for the lively music generated by an AI according to the tastes of the volunteers. The more difficult the work required, the greater the effect on the brain of these small pleasures and increased performance.
Pleasure has a real effect on the brain and stress
The ultimate goal is to contribute to the development of a technology that would allow anyone to monitor their own level of cognitive arousal in real time, by detecting moments of acute stress or cognitive disengagement, for example, explains Rose Faghih, associate professor of biomedical engineering at NYU Tandon, who has developed MINDWATCH over the past six years. The device could then alert them that it is time to listen to their favorite song in order to once again reach a brain state in which they feel better.
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