The National Science Foundation (NSF) published an article and video online about research conducted by Jose Luis “Pepe” Contreras-Vidal, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor of electrical and computer engineering at UH Cullen College of Engineering.
The article describes Pepe’s various research projects that aim to understand relationships between human brain activity and aesthetic experiences. Included in the article are Pepe’s studies that fit people with EEG skullcaps to record neuronal activity while they dance, create and view art, and play games including Exquisite Corpse and Minecraft.
Ultimately, Pepe’s goals are to understand the relationships between human brain activity and the creative process, to gain insight into neural variability to optimize therapies for individual patients suffering from mental illness and other neurological conditions, to understand the brain’s complex cognitive and neural systems as they operate in natural environments, and to contribute to the international effort to map the complex neural circuitry in the human brain.
For a more detailed description of Pepe’s work, read the article composed by NSF author Jessica Arriens.