That Neuroscience Guy - Neuroscience Christmas Shopping List - 2024

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

In today's episode of That Neuroscience Guy, we discuss some cool neuroscience technology that you can gift to special people in your life this holiday season. 

Hi, my name is Olaf Krogolson and I'm a neuroscientist at the University of Victoria. And in my spare time, I'm that neuroscience guy. Welcome to the podcast. Okay, we're into December and it's heading towards Christmas. We haven't done this for a year, if not more. So on today's podcast, the Neuroscience Christmas Wishlist, the 2024 version. So really what I want to do is just talk about

some tools that are out there, some neuroscience tools that you can buy right now today or give to a significant other. I personally like presents for myself, but a lot of people say you're supposed to give presents to other people. But these are things that you can use that give you some insight into your brain,

or if not, at least factors that influence brain health. So let's leap right in with probably my favorite portable mobile neuroscience device you can get. And that's the Muse EEG headband. Now I've been a fan of Muse for over 10 years and the headset has come a long way. So now you're into the Muse S, which is the sleep band or the soft band, much more comfortable to wear than the original Muse. So if you remember the original Muses

that had the big plastic covered pieces behind the ears, that's all long gone. The Muse S, and there's actually two versions of the Muse S now. There's the Muse S1, the Muse S2, the Muse S2 being the latest. This is the most recent headset they have. So what do you use a Muse S for? Now what it looks like it's basically a softband that goes

tucks in behind your ears and then onto your forehead. That's where all the action is. The main control unit's on the forehead and it pairs with a mobile phone, iOS or Android or a tablet. And you can do a lot of things with the Muse. First of all, mindfulness. That's what the Muse was originally designed for. There's a series of exercises that help you achieve states of mindfulness. So if you're into mindfulness and meditation, or you know someone that is into mindfulness or meditation, then the Muse is a great tool for doing this.

Now it's not the only tool out there that relies on EEG or brain waves, but it's by far the most popular and in my opinion, the best supporting stuff. They're supporting documentation, supporting videos, tons of different mindfulness experiences to choose from. So that's there. But what's also cool about the Muse S is because it's a softband,

it's also being promoted for sleep. So you can use the Muse S as a sleep tracker. I'm gonna talk a little bit more about sleep trackers for some other gift ideas, but the reality is the only effective way to truly track sleep is through EEG and Muse S would be the best tool for doing that. Other sleep trackers rely on movement primarily and oxygen saturation, but EEG is the gold standard. So the Muse S is a legitimate sleep tracker that can classify your sleep stages,

and they even have sleep experiences to help you fall asleep. One last thing I'll say about the Muse S is coming out soon, they're releasing measures that allow you to track your brain performance. All right, so they have different biomarkers, if you will, that track different aspects of brain performance. And the Muse S has this feature as well.

So there's quite a bit you can do with the Muse S. Probably my number one recommended tool for if you're interested in neuroscience or you know someone that's interested in neuroscience. Lots you can do with it. Mindfulness, sleep, and tracking of brain performance. neuroscience or you know someone that's interested in neuroscience, lots you can do with it. Mindfulness, sleep, and tracking of brain performance. So what else is out there?

Well, another cool thing that's out there is Mendy. Mendy is also a headband that you wear. It doesn't help with sleep tracking. It's more focused on focus and controlling and harnessing your brain function. It uses FNIRS, Functional NIR Infrared Spectroscopy. It's a very accurate device, quite affordable, typically around $500 US, and it allows you to track your brain's focus. So just basically how well you're concentrating and how well your brain is ready for day-to-day tasks. And it does this working with a phone again.

There's an app that you use with it. It doesn't have quite the range of things open to it that the Muse S does, but Mendy is looking at adding some new features. But just the core feature, if you're interested in focus, for instance, you have business meetings in your life or something where you might want to focus your brain in,

Mendy's a pretty good tool for doing that. And again, another excellent gift for someone that's interested in mindfulness. Now, I did mention I'd talk some more about sleep tracking. Sleep tracking is important because as you know from listening to the podcast, sleep is, at least in my opinion, the single biggest predictor of brain performance. So therefore, knowing if we've had a good sleep or not is probably a good idea. Probably the best sleep tracker out there is the Ura Ring. So the Ura Ring is a ring that you wear on your finger. It allows

you to track your heart rate. It allows you to track blood oxygen levels. It allows you to track your breathing. It allows you to track body temperature. It allows you to track activity. I'll note, it's probably not the best activity tracker. I've found that the accelerometer is not as accurate as my Apple Watch, for instance. But through all of this, it does give you some insight into your day-to-day activity.

The app's quite nice, it has reports of a lot of things. And in my mind, other than using EEG, so the Muse S, the Oura Ring is probably the most accurate sleep tracker out there. And it also gives you this other information about the state of your body. Now that being said, there are other ways to do this, of course. I wear an Apple Watch Ultra. They're a bit pricey, but the sleep tracking simply is not as accurate as an Aura Ring. It's reasonably accurate, but it's not as accurate as an Aura Ring. So if your primary goal is sleep tracking, I'd suggest, well, the Muse S number one, Aura Ring number two, or an Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Ultra

being the extreme version, comes with a lot of extra features. Like for instance, on my Apple Watch, you can measure your ECG to look at your heart. But I'll get into that specifically in a second because obviously heart and blood flow impacts brain performance. So Apple Watch, great call. But if you don't want to spend that much money, I've played around with the Google Fitbit Inspire 3. It's usually under $100.

It does heart rate, it does steps, but it does a reasonable job of sleep tracking. Again, not as accurate as the Ura Ring, if that sleep is your big thing, but it's reasonably accurate and for the price you can't go wrong. It's under a hundred bucks. It also avoids monthly fees. One of the things I don't like about my Ura Ring, and if you're listening, please feel free to send me a promo code or change the way it works.

But the Ura Ring comes with a subscription fee, so you can't really use it on its own. So for sleep tracking, EEG number one, use the Muse S. Ura Ring number two. And then I just go with the Google Fitbit Inspire 3, unless you don't mind spending the $1,000 to get an Apple Watch Ultra. Now I've mentioned ECG a few times in there. Not directly tied to neuroscience, but obviously heart health is important for brain health. So I thought I'd throw this out there,

because I have one. It's a really cool device. It's called a Cardia, K-A-R-D-I-A. I got mine for $79. It kind of looks like an Apple remote to me, but smaller, easily fits in your pocket, and it allows you to do one channel or six channel lead ECGs.

So if you're interested in tracking your heart, it comes with a pretty simple to use and slick app. Very tiny and it's medical grade accuracy. It's been certified so that your doctor will take this ECG and use it happily. No need to lie down in the hospital and get it done properly. So cardiac, like I said, not directly neuroscience, but if heart is something you're interested in and you want to track it accurately every day, highly recommend it.

It's probably one of the coolest bits of tech I've seen in the last year or two, and I see lots of bits of tech. For the last Christmas gift ideas, I thought I'd mention three books. Some of them are new, some of them are old. But these are books you could give someone that's interested in neuroscience. My number one book I recommend, and I'm a bit biased because my research program is primarily focused on human decision making.

But if you want to understand that, you can't go wrong with Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow by Daniel Kahneman. He's passed on now, but he's a former Nobel Laureate. And it's a really good overview of how we make decisions. And it's got real-world applicability. I really think it's the kind of book you could read and you could think to yourself, you know, maybe I could, in this particular situation, I should make this decision a bit differently because clearly I'm making a fast decision or a gut hunch decision and I should be making an analytical decision.

Another book that I'd recommend is The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Deutsch. Fascinating look at neuroplasticity and things that have resulted through neuroplasticity. It's rare that I pick up a neuroscience book and I can say I didn't put it down, but I literally didn't. So the brain that changes itself. And I mentioned this one a couple years ago and I thought I'd throw it out there because it's still to me one of my favorite sort of popular neuroscience books. Getting a bit hard to find but it's out there. Phantoms in the Brain by Ramachandran. Absolutely fascinating way to study the brain

is to look at people that have brain damage or deficits and see what they can do and cannot do. And I can assure you, the people you meet in phantoms in the brain and the conditions that you will discover are absolutely fascinating. I used to use this actually as a textbook. I did my post-doc at UBC and I taught a course in cognitive neuroscience, and I actually used

Phantoms in the Brain as a textbook, although it's written as a popular book. So there you go, three books for people that like neuroscience, Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow, The Brain That Changes Itself, and Phantoms in the Brain. So, Muse S, recommend it, probably the coolest neuroscience tool out there, allows you to look look at mindfulness, sleep and brain performance. Mendy, another cool tool, but it's focused on focus.

The Ura Ring for sleep tracking. I wear one, highly recommended. But you can get away with a Google Fitbit Inspire 3 for under 100 bucks if you just want some insight into sleep and therefore brain performance. And again, if you are even remotely concerned with heart issues, check out Cardia, K-A-R-D-I-A. Very cheap, very accurate, and a slick app

that's easy to use, and of course the books. I will say that the future is looking very interesting. I can't say too much because I'm under non-disclosure agreements, but in 2025, we're gonna see EEG integrated in the mainstream into virtual reality and video games. And the idea is to enhance the experience, right? So imagine you're playing football on the Xbox,

and if you're more relaxed, the pass is easier to throw and if you're more anxious the pass is harder to throw. How cool is that? I'm not going to make statements about whether MetaQuest or Xbox are integrating EEG, but they could. But that's what you're going to see in 2025, I think, is EEG into video games. All right, the Christmas wish list. Now before I wrap up, I'm gonna throw one out there because it's something we're working with in our lab. If you have a MetaQuest 3 or a MetaQuest 2, check out FloatVR.

It's a company out of Vancouver. We're doing a research project with them. This could be another gift is to give someone a subscription to Float. Basically, it's a series of virtual reality experiences that allow you to relax or allow you to pick yourself up or allow you to focus. They do this through a combination of a visual

and auditory experience. We had Doron on the podcast earlier. Just want to remind you, Float's another excellent Christmas gift idea. Okay, if you haven't already, check out the website, thatneuroscienceguy.com, links to our Etsy store and Patreon. Thank you so much to those of you that support us that way. If you have ideas for 2025, we want to know what you want to know about the neuroscience of everyday life. So that neuroscience guy at gmail.com or at that neuroscience guy on threads or X. And finally, the podcast. As ever, thank you so much for listening. It means a lot and it keeps us going, frankly.

We're going to keep going because you keep listening. My name is Olav Kregelsen and I'm that neuroscience guy. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays and I'll see you soon for another episode of the podcast.