Brain Waves

Kevin and Sarah had the opportunity to be a part of a study at BYU. They were collecting data on childhood brain development and offered $10.00 to each participant. The kids thought it sounded great so we signed up. They had to start by filling out about 4 pages of questions about how they view themselves, their responses to different situations, etc. Mommy also had to answer several pages of questions. Kevin went first, they went into a little room with a computer screen and a key pad with only 4 keys. They told him what each key was and explained that questions would come up on the screen and he was to answer them correctly as quickly as he could. Then they fun part. They put a "net" of over 100 monitors, that were sopping wet, onto his head. The monitors were hooked to another computer that showed his brain waves as he responded to the questions. Then they shut the door and he was left in a little room to complete the test. We could all watch him on the monitors in the other room. He said after a bit he felt like he was in an interrogation room. The BYU students conducting the test showed us his brain wave patterns as he answered the questions. It was pretty cool that from a bunch of wavy lines they could learn so much.
Then it was Sarah's turn. When they put the net on her they had to add so much extra water that she had salt water dripping in her face for the whole test. It was quite an adventure for both kids but they were both very pleased to get a crisp, new $10.00 bill at the end and I have great photos to remember the whole thing.