Making Music From Brainwaves: A History

A new paper in Brain tells the story of attempts to turn brain waves into music. The authors are Bart Lutters and Peter J. Koehler: Brainwaves in concert: the 20th century sonification of the electroencephalogram Electroencephalography (EEG), a technique for measuring brain electrical activity, was invented by German psychiatrist Hans Berger in 1929. Berger's EEG displayed the recorded activity in the form of graphs, using a mobile pen and a rotating drum of graph paper, but within 5 years, English physiologists Edgar Adrian and Brain Matthews reported the sonification (conversion into sound) of the EEG signal, using a horn loudspeaker. EEG went on to become an invaluable tool in neuroscience and in the diagnosis of epilepsy and other brain disorders. But it also inspired some unusual musical creations. In the 1960s, the experimental composer Alvin Lucier devised a piece called 'Music for the solo performer' in which the 'performer' sat ...