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EEG DECISIONS

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Visualizing Human Decision Making
Under Uncertainty

Overview.

EEGDecisions is a visualization tool to help neuroscientists correlate brain activity with the geo-location of a studied subject.


Team


Advisors

Dianne Lee

Phoebe Lin 

Carla Saad

Johanna Beyer

Michael Behrisch


Research Paper 


Assets


Prototype here

in collaboration with Harvard’s Computational Cognitive Neuroscience lab

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How does the brain make decisions under uncertainty in the real world?

Decision-making has long been regarded as a difficult and complex process. As we go about our daily lives, we are confronted with many decisions and their consequences, which we translate into usable information for similar situations in the future. A single decision can be viewed as an individual problem called the explore-exploit dilemma. The explore-exploit dilemma originates from the tradeoffs associated with selecting a decision of known value versus selecting alternative decisions of uncertain values. 

Framework. 

EEGDecisions is a novel visualization framework designed for detailed analysis of the real-time neural activity in combination with decisions made in a naturalistic setting. Identifying specific waveforms and peaks in different EEG channels will be crucial for understanding the brain and how decisions are evaluated under various uncertainty levels.

How might we visualize EEG data variation in relation to geospatial data?

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A visualization to help correlate the brain activity with the geo-location of the body

Electric activity in the human brain

Geolocation of the human body

Persona. 

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Users: Neuroscientists 


In order to understand the needs of our users, we conducted several interviews to discuss their goals, pain- points, and needs.  

Process.

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Previous Interface

Our Collaborators were using a previous interface to do their studies. 

There were many elements that led to information clutter and cognitive load.

 

Our approach focuses on 2 main elements of the interface: the map and the corresponding EEG data graphs  

 

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Evolution of the interface design from low resolution sketches to a built product

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From Low-fidelity to medium-fidelity

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3 Main Features


After going through several iterations and facing multiple implementation challenges related to the structure of data, we focused on 3 main functionality.  

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GPS Data 

Data from Muse

Challenges

Large Quantity of Data

Timestamp Inaccuracy for location

Timestamp mismatch across EEG & location

Solutions

User-Induced Selection

Interpolation of Values

Before & After Buffer

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Demo of the built prototype

User Testing 

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Throughout the project timeline, we scheduled interviews with our users to test our designs in relation to their needs.  

Collecting insights from users whether through their direct answers or through observation helped shape the next iteration of the interface.

Information Architecture

EEG Decisions Information Architecture .

EEGDecision's Interface 

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Key Takeaways 

 

  1. Sometimes design needs to be rethought in relation to technical implementation especially when designing for data.  
     

  2. Conducting frequent usability studies and validation sessions helps shape a more viable and useful product. 

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