The technological advancements in music-making have truly soared over the last couple of years. Among the newest projects is one run by researchers at Plymouth University and the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, where they’ve given patients who are unable to walk or talk the ability to use electrical signals from their brains to select musical passages that are played by musicians in real-time. Ultimately, this gives the disabled musicians a way to express their musical creativity despite their inabilities to speak or physically interact with instruments.

It all came together when Professors Eduardo Reck Miranda and Joel Eaton created a Brain-Computer Music Interface to measure brain activity in the visual cortex by combining an EEG with a computer. According to Discover Magazine, “The computer displays four musical sequence options, and each option has a corresponding matrix of flashing lights. The four musicians choose the desired sequence by concentrating on the light matrix that corresponds to their choice. The choice is then sent to another musician who physically plays the part. The members of the ensemble could even modulate the volume by changing the intensity of their concentration.” These advancements are simply incredible.

Scientists Have Discovered The Area Of The Brain That Responds To Music

In addition to interacting with instruments, the disabled musicians are also able to interact with each other, allowing them to get involved with something musical at the same time, or as we like to call it, “jam.” Dubbed the Paramusical Ensemble, these musicians are making some serious moves in the jam-band world.

So how does this work? Each patient wears a cap on their head that is wired with electrodes, one specifically above the visual cortex. “When an image is held in the brain, the visual cortex produces a unique electrical pattern that the Brain-Computer Music Interface System identifies. By concentrating exclusively on the marker accompanying the piece of music they wish to play, the EEG can read and translate their brain activity into commands,” DM explains.

The Paramusical Ensemble’s piece, entitled “Activating Memory,” was composed by Professor Miranda and was performed for the first time last July with the physical accompaniment of the Bergerson string quartet. Watch how it goes down:

Paramusical Ensemble – Trailer from PACMF-2015 on Vimeo.

[via Discovered Magazine]