The defense went much better than I anticipated. Having to rehearse a talk that is 88 slides long and roughly an hour in length was quite a challenge, and I always ended up hitting major snags when I practiced. God certainly was watching over me today, as I pulled off the talk much more smoothly than I ever did. Sure, I tripped up a bit, but I can live with that. The committee was extremely supportive and helpful. Thanks to all those who prayed for me.

Now, just some edits in the dissertation, and I’ll be able to file it.

Chanlee put it quite nicely, I’m “on the cusp of a new era.” Reader take note: that new era is still a year away, and with this era not quite done, may I present my New Year’s/birthday resolutions (including one made during Sunday School!): 30 things to do before I turn 30. With 30 things to do in 12 months, I’m looking at 2+ items per month. Therefore, I will try to keep these goals simple and concrete. In no particular order:

1. Graduate.
2. Publish at least one academic paper.
3. Revamp this blog (more on that in future posts).
4. Build a portfolio.
5. Complete unfinished website projects.
6. Learn PHP.
7. Learn AJAX.
8. Learn Flash.
9. Master Photoshop.
10. Master CSS.
11. Learn to use our Digital Rebel.
12. Receive my green card (it is coming soon!).
13. Make money (Graduate stipends don’t count).
14. Own an iPhone.
15. Own a Wii.
16. Read through the Bible.
17. Share Christ with at least one person.
18. Focus on God’s loving and merciful character.
19. Write more to and pray more for Ido, a child we’re sponsoring through Compassion.
20. Pray more for other people.
21. Post more on this blog.
22. Establish regular exercising regimen.
23. Organize files — physical and electronic.
24. Organize cluttered email inboxes.
25. Sleep earlier and wake up earlier.
26. Watch Season 6 of 24.
27. Help Chanlee with her Mandarin.
28. Write down ideas in my Moleskine notebook.
29. Have a site featured on CSS Remix or CSS Beauty.
30. Start using Google ads (but not on this blog, hopefully).

Hmm, looks more daunting than I originally hoped. 30 is a bit much — especially for someone who doesn’t normally make New Year’s resolutions! — but for the sake of the gimmick, I’ll keep it that way. The goal, of course, is too accomplish as many items as possible.

When I tell people that I’m studying Cognitive Sciences, I usually receive blank stares. Then comes the natural follow-up question:

“What’s that?”

EEG, I tell them.

“Whoa, what is that?”

“It’s like…brain waves.”

People tend to stop at this point, and I’m pretty sure confusion plays a big role. Personally, I don’t like the term “brain waves,” but it seems to do the job. So I think I’ll write a little explanation. Here’s hoping it can help with the confusion.

Cognitive science is very interdisciplinary, and by that nature, rarther hard to define. Wikipedia defines it as “the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence.” There are many ways to do that, and my field of study would mostly likely fall into the category of cognitive neuroscience, where one tries to define neural correlates and mechanisms for various cognitive functions — the holy grail being our consciousness.

EEG, or electroencephalography , is one tool scientists can use to study these neural mechanisms. The neurons in our brain generate tiny electrical currents that can be recorded on the scalp using electrodes. We have subjects perform certain visual tasks, and we record and study changes in the electrical activity related to these visual tasks. We usually look for changes in the frequency and amplitude of these currents.

So, for example, a very basic demonstration of this would be to record a subject viewing a black and white grating pattern flickering at, say, 12 Hz — that is, 12 times per second. In our recording, we will also see a 12 Hz signal. This means that somewhere in the brain, mostly likely in the visual cortex, there are neurons that are responding to the flicker at the same rate.

Our studies make full use of this effect: we can present one stimulus at one frequency, and another at a different frequency. We can then separate and track the brain’s response to both stimuli by locking on to the appropriate frequency. Such a technique is called “frequency tagging.”

Edit: This was intended to be a two-part post. I’ve decided to cancel the second part…