What ’s normal? When it comes to the brain, it’s hard to say, and that’s why we need to study global neurodiversity

In a small village in India—a place so remote it has no electricity, no telecommunication system, and no cars or buses—a research worker prepares to place an EEG headset on a female villager’s head. The woman, who earns $3.75 a day laboring in a nearby rice paddy and who has never ventured outside her village, eyes the futuristic device with trepidation. “Is it going to hurt my head?” she asks. Sathish, the research worker, has heard this question before. In fact, he’s heard several similar queries from anxious villagers who have gotten scared when they saw the brainwear. “Will it give me a headache?” “Is it going to give me an electric shock?” He assures the woman the headset is painless and explains that all she has to do is sit quietly and allow her mind to wander. Sathish gently adjusts an array of electrodes on the woman’s head and turns on the device that will read and record her brainwaves. Unsure what to expect, the villager does as Sathish asked. She closes her eyes, sits in silence, and starts to daydream. This woman is just one of hundreds in close to fifty settlements in India who agreed to take part in a trailblazing research project. Launched by Tara Thiagarajan’s nonprofit organization Sapien Labs to study neurodiversity among people from all walks of life in every corner of the earth, this study included people in areas ranging from small remote villages to urban hubs with incomes ranging from less than $1 a day to over $400 a day....
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Author Speaks Series Cognitive Neuroscience Education & Lifelong Learning Health & Wellness Technology alpha oscillation axons Berger’s Wave bias big data brain-enhancement brain-related diseases Brainnovations brains brainwa Source Type: blogs