Description of the video:
[Audio: music fades in. Video: Davin Greenwell is seated in his lab facing the camera speaking. We see the exterior door sign for NEURAL CONTROL LAB Dr Riely. Davin spins some dials and applies sponges to some wires and headgear that will go on the brain of a subject. We see a wave form monitor and then the subject wearing the headgear with wires come out.]
My name is Davin Greenwell, and I'm studying motor control and motor learning at IUPUI. What we're essentially doing is studying whether or not we can influence motor learning or the acquisition of a new skill, enhancing a person's ability to get better quicker with the use of an external electrical stimulator on the, on the brain.
[Video: two hands hold an x box control pushing buttons and moving the joy sticks. A close up of the headgear reveals wires and other objects attached to the head of the subject. From over the shoulder we see him playing a video game with the device on his head. A close up of his hands on the controller and of the headgear. We see measurements appear on a computer monitor which is documenting the progress the subject is making.]
And in this case, we're using a video game task, which is kind of meant to be a proxy for some of the more complex, multi-faceted tasks of normal daily life. I think that these sorts of technologies are a useful tool in perhaps rehab settings.
[Video: Davin appears back on camera sitting in his lab. A close up of the controller with more button pushing, and then a wide shot to see both Davin and the subject looking at the video game being played.]
Again, it's something that's going to be accessible to a lot of people. It's going to be a relatively cost effective. It's going to be relatively safe. If we think about brain machine interface kind of broadly, we all use a cell phone or a smartphone every day. Just like we are interacting with that device, that device also interacts with us, so the brain changes functionally, the architecture of the brain changes as a result of our interaction with those technologies, those devices.
[Video: Another close up of a brain wave appears on a computer. Davin returns to the camera. The end title appears, INDIANA UNIVERSITY RESEARCH research.impact.iu.edu]
Long term, I would like to go down that route, start looking at more of the kind of molecular basis for machine brain interface technology and how that can tie back into motor learning.