Project overview

Throughout the day, our brains continuously transition between states of alertness, fatigue, stress and engagement. These fluctuations seem to be reflected in patterns of neural activity, often referred to as brain states, which may shape how we perceive and respond to the world around us. For example, the same person may react very differently to an important sound depending on whether they are highly alert or mentally fatigued.

In this master's thesis project, you will investigate how brain states can be identified using EEG. This includes

·         Literature review on brain-state research and the methods used to characterize dynamic brain activity. S

·         Identifying brain states within an existing EEG dataset

The existing EEG data is a four-hour recording within an office-like environment. It contains neural responses to workplace sounds as well as tasks with varying levels of cognitive load, providing a unique opportunity to study brain-state dynamics in a realistic setting.

This project offers hands-on experience with EEG analysis and state-of-the-art approaches to studying dynamic brain activity. You will gain insight into the brain as a continuously changing system rather than a collection of isolated responses.

Understanding these dynamics may help explain why behaviour varies within individuals across time and could ultimately contribute to novel interventions for mental health and cognitive disorders.

Brain activity patterns, i.e. brain states, continuously fluctuates over time, yet it remains unclear how these fluctuations shape our perception and responses in everyday life. This project aims to identify natural fluctuations between brain states using existing long-duration EEG recordings collected in a office-like environment.

• Experience with EEG
• Experience with programming in MATLAB and/or python