WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 1 00:00:00.089 --> 00:00:02.870 There's an idea in science called the null hypothesis. 2 00:00:02.870 --> 00:00:05.810 And it works like this: when you're setting out to prove a theory, 3 00:00:05.810 --> 00:00:08.530 your default answer should be, "It's not going to work," 4 00:00:08.530 --> 00:00:12.530 and you've got to convince the world otherwise through clear results. 5 00:00:12.530 --> 00:00:17.690 So in my last video, while I was trying to talk to a camera up on that zero-g flight, 6 00:00:17.690 --> 00:00:21.170 the student researchers all through the rest of the plane, 7 00:00:21.170 --> 00:00:24.380 who were physicists, psychologists, chemists, electrical engineers, 8 00:00:24.380 --> 00:00:28.190 all of them were trying to disprove their null hypothesis. 9 00:00:28.190 --> 00:00:34.460 We want to see if brain-computer interfaces can be used for very extreme situations, such as space. 10 00:00:34.460 --> 00:00:39.620 and that zero-g or weightlessness will not really interfere with the signalling, 11 00:00:39.620 --> 00:00:41.630 and if it does, how can we filter it out? 12 00:00:41.630 --> 00:00:46.010 In the flights, the participants are going to play a game called "shoot-the-alien" 13 00:00:46.010 --> 00:00:48.280 and they'll do so with their brain activity. 14 00:00:48.280 --> 00:00:52.340 Simply put, they'll just think of movements and not actually move 15 00:00:52.340 --> 00:00:56.160 and by thinking of that movement, they'll control a little cannon on a screen. 16 00:00:56.160 --> 00:00:58.540 If I really move my right hand, I get a certain brain signal 17 00:00:58.540 --> 00:01:03.360 but if I imagine moving my right hand, I get the exact same brain signal. 18 00:01:03.360 --> 00:01:07.310 That means that I can learn a computer how to respond to those brain signals 19 00:01:07.310 --> 00:01:09.789 even if I'm not really doing anything at all. 20 00:01:09.789 --> 00:01:12.139 That's why it's usable for people who are actually paralysed 21 00:01:12.139 --> 00:01:15.389 or suffer from other types of illnesses. 22 00:01:15.389 --> 00:01:18.280 We're not actually reading someone's mind but we're measuring their brain signals. 23 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:20.770 We have a cap, which has 64 electrodes 24 00:01:20.770 --> 00:01:23.709 to actually measure those brain signals through the skull, 25 00:01:23.709 --> 00:01:26.060 and through a special gel that we put in. 26 00:01:26.060 --> 00:01:28.409 The cap is actually quite comfortable once it's on. 27 00:01:28.409 --> 00:01:31.109 You don't actually feel it anymore so it's just measuring there. 28 00:01:31.109 --> 00:01:34.620 It's not going to bother them. At least we hope it's not! 29 00:01:34.620 --> 00:01:37.400 In theory, getting a negative result is a good thing. 30 00:01:37.409 --> 00:01:40.779 And for the BrainFly team, that would be brain activity in microgravity 31 00:01:40.779 --> 00:01:42.929 being too different for the system to detect. 32 00:01:42.929 --> 00:01:47.090 Now, as long as the equipment worked, that isn't a failure. 33 00:01:47.090 --> 00:01:49.270 That just means your idea has been proven wrong. 34 00:01:49.270 --> 00:01:50.780 That's still a step forward. 35 00:01:50.780 --> 00:01:54.459 But, in practice, humans don't work that way. 36 00:01:54.459 --> 00:01:56.439 It's called publication bias. 37 00:01:56.439 --> 00:01:59.179 Negative results are less likely to be written up by scientists, 38 00:01:59.179 --> 00:02:01.049 less likely to be published by journals 39 00:02:01.049 --> 00:02:04.369 and less likely to make it out to the rest of the world. 40 00:02:04.369 --> 00:02:07.709 The media doesn't care if nothing's changed. 41 00:02:07.709 --> 00:02:09.799 Scientific institutions have limited money 42 00:02:09.799 --> 00:02:13.579 and getting flashy, amazing results that generate lots of press coverage... 43 00:02:13.579 --> 00:02:15.390 oh, that's good for your career. 44 00:02:15.390 --> 00:02:17.620 So if you're putting all that time and money in, 45 00:02:17.620 --> 00:02:23.000 there is still a stigma that, if you get a negative result, you have somehow failed. 46 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:24.159 We do hope to publish. 47 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:28.050 We hope to get, maybe at least, four papers actually, 48 00:02:28.050 --> 00:02:30.170 because we all have different thesis subjects on it. 49 00:02:30.170 --> 00:02:32.420 In the best case scenario, everything works perfectly. 50 00:02:32.420 --> 00:02:38.940 The BCI's still controllable, the data's not noisy, all nine participants give perfect data. 51 00:02:38.940 --> 00:02:41.020 That's the dream result. 52 00:02:41.030 --> 00:02:47.750 My ideal result is actually this little tiny brain signal called a P300, 53 00:02:47.750 --> 00:02:51.400 which is a positive peak in your electrical signal. 54 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:54.349 So what I think and what I hope is that microgravity, 55 00:02:54.349 --> 00:03:00.410 the moment when you're weightless, may result in a slight cognitive enhancement. 56 00:03:00.410 --> 00:03:03.480 So up there, in those 20 second bursts of microgravity, 57 00:03:03.480 --> 00:03:06.319 those researchers tried to disprove their null hypothesis. 58 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:10.959 For BrainFly, that is: is our brain activity comparable in zero G? 59 00:03:10.959 --> 00:03:13.650 Can you still use a brain-computer interface if you're in orbit? 60 00:03:13.650 --> 00:03:19.829 In a few decades, could astronauts doing space walks use their minds to control equipment? 61 00:03:19.829 --> 00:03:21.230 I'm not going to tell you. 62 00:03:21.230 --> 00:03:22.780 You can look it up when they all publish their papers 63 00:03:22.780 --> 00:03:26.299 because the achievement is the same, regardless of the results. 64 00:03:26.299 --> 00:03:28.460 Science has taken one small step forward, 65 00:03:28.460 --> 00:03:31.520 no matter whether they disprove their null hypothesis or not. 66 00:03:33.500 --> 00:03:36.520 Nah, I'm just kidding, they got the results they wanted. 67 00:03:40.020 --> 00:03:43.700 If you're a masters or PhD student from an ESA member state, 68 00:03:43.700 --> 00:03:45.569 and you want to be one of the people behind me, 69 00:03:45.569 --> 00:03:47.730 then have a look at the Fly Your Thesis program. 70 00:03:47.730 --> 00:03:49.840 The link is in the description!