‘The Moment’: A Fusion of Science, Creativity, and Personal Reflection
Human-centred
Arts-focused
Beautiful science
captured in the moment
“I find this work endlessly fascinating and affirming and believe this to be the medicine the world needs for healing. I absolutely love this!!! ”
““I just wanted to take a moment to express how inspiring it was to read about The Lαβ’s first pop-up in Singapore. The way you combine neuroscience with such personal and creative experiences is truly remarkable, and it’s fascinating to see how everything comes together in such a unique way.””
“I really appreciate the thought and care you put into protecting my sensitive data!”
“Thank you so much for allowing me to witness and experience such a creative and interesting technology. Having learnt about some of the vision and direction you are headed towards makes me so thrilled to see what you’ll have in the future 😊 🙌”
“The journey learning about my brain this way has been more healing than I could ever put into words (says the writer). 🙏🥳❤️”
What is The Lαβ?
“Data can tell a story, but the full story is only understood when human insight brings it to life.”
Step into 'The Moment' powered by The Lαβ where we fuse science with creativity and personal reflection. We're on the cutting edge of emotional and cognitive neuroscience, capturing unique and transformative moments that push boundaries and dive deeply into unqiue human experiences. Through EEG brain activity technology and our bespoke methodologies, we can visualise these moments, offering opportunities for both internal and external reflection.
We collaborate with anyone from the general public to explore the dynamic interplay between creativity and the mind, investigating how different personal experiences impact our brains. We always prioritise ethics, and we are always guided by individuals and their chosen moments. We're an inclusive community, embracing people of all backgrounds and abilities.
We use a lightweight and easy to use ergonomically designed EEG headset which gives you freedom to explore your emotional or cognitive journey while it captures your brain's activity in real-time (eliminating messy gels and cumbersome wires). Portability allows you to move freely in your own space. The headset empowers you with real-time insights, fostering a deeper connection with your own mind. We have multiple headsets and we can scan people sharing an experience together.
‘The Moment’ is more than a project; it's a fresh dialogue, a tapestry of human experience, and most importantly whatever we discover will be entirely driven to serve humanity and protect people, especially when they are most vulnerable. The Lαβ is co-founded by two friends who just want to make the world a better place: Becky Inkster and Mark Sheppard. Established December 2023
LATEST ANNOUNCEMENTS
Evidence-based papers, our Handbook & Ethical Position Statement coming soon!
Our Next Pop-Up is in Africa
The Lαβ is coming to south africa! more information coming soon.
This pop-up will be taking place may 2025
Our Singapore Pop-Up, Oct 2024
A lot more information will be coming soon! In. brief, on 3-4th October 2024 we brain scanned local breakdancers ‘breakers’ while visiting very unique urban environments that support street dance culture. In addition, we did a Pop-Up at the Mind Arts Experiential Lab (MaeLab) and brain scanned participants doing a wide range of chosen ‘moments’, including:
scrolling through social media switching from TikTok to Instagram
Someone thinking about their long distance partner and the move the person will soon be making from Singapore to the EU to join their partner. The participant imagined and spoke outlaid about future moments they will have together, such as New Years Eve, meeting her partners parents, and more. This then followed with her standing up and hugging a friend who joined her for her brain scan while she imagined the hug was with her long distance partner.
Someone engaging in a religious practice known as ‘speaking in tongues’ (what this means) and then afterwards proceeding to ‘sing in tongues’.
Someone doing medium level Sudoku until they started to get stuck, and then asking their friend to come join them to help see if they can work together to solve it.
Someone singing two different styles of genres
Our UK Pop-Up at The Music Summer School and Festival (28 - 31 July 2024)
Our First Ever Pop-Up @ The London Data Week 6 July 2024
Thank you to our AMAZING ORGANISERS and venue partners!
Working at the Pace of Trust
A lot more is happening behind the scenes…but here’s a peek! 👀
Charlie from The Blair Academy, Street Dance Sessions with Elderly Communities on Council Estates
““When these sessions end, its hard for me to even say because it makes me feel emotional. I don’t like to think about them coming to an end because what we’ve created here is such a beautiful community and I’ll be really sad to see that go“ ”
Someone Scrolling Through Different Social Media Platforms
George The Poet
George The Poet: This short video shows George’s brain activity while performing a freestyle rap about Tupac on the anniversary of Tupac’s death. This video is not for academic or research purposes. It is purely ‘play mode’. Check out George The Poet’s website to find out more about his amazing work: https://www.georgethepoet.com
A Point of Spiritual Connection: Project Hope
“I experienced a point of spiritual connection with God in a manner that reflected where my spirit convened with the Holy Spirit. I consider that this spiritual connection resulted in an impact on my heart and my brain”
The B-Side Story: We scanned an anonymous person’s brain while listening to their Bulimia Song. Then sang the chorus a cappella
The song lyrics open with a conversation between two people:
“What do you know about it?
Well you can tell me.
I cant tell you...you don’t...you cant...you cant explain man what’s going on in your brain. You can’t tell somebody how ..whats happening, what’s going on in your brain.
Why don’t you just try...”
“…always in my head and my safety blanket”
We then went to a deeper space
This brain data set is highly sensitive and for ethical reasons it is currently only available anonymously upon request for known intended purposes that must be ethical.
3 Years with James and a surprise trip to Japan 🇯🇵
James’ journey:
we are working together to collect numerous brain scans over the course of several years in james life while he tackles his fears and engages in learning how to play the piano, do public speaking and more. even deeper we explore how his relationship with social anxiety changes over time.
Project M: Anonymous Person, Domestic Violence (I Love The Way You Lie by EMINEM)
It is an utmost privilege to work together and explore the state of mind of an Anonymous person who experienced domestic violence. We posted one of our headsets overseas and remotely taught this person how to scan their own brain. This was a very important victory for ethical innovation (!!!!!!) as this preserved their mental privacy and gave them complete agency over their chosen moments. It also gave them full control over their cognitive and emotional autonomy. This person did many scans, for example, while listening to a song that has immense meaning to them: “Love The Way You Lie” by EMINEM featuring Rihanna. The person told us about the song’s meaning:
“ “…it was kind of an anthem song for me during that time...I listened to it again, to remember how I felt and what I remembered from my clinical experience. Music is just so powerful and I have always known that intuitively. I can’t wait to see what it does to my brain. It felt like a great release. I even had to dance....it was involuntary!””
This brain data set is highly sensitive and for ethical reasons it is currently only available anonymously upon request for known intended purposes that must be ethical.
Without knowing, can AI models detect what just happened to Bobby?
Inside the state of mind of two-time UK Body Popping Champion Alex ‘Mechanikool’ Peters
We work with a lot of great partners, and together we accomplish a lot.
We give invited talks about what we do in collaboration with others
More Feedback!
“Your brain scans open up such possibilities for people to “communicate” their emotions in ways that may be hard for them in the traditional sense. ”
“This approach transforms seemingly unquantifiable and abstract psychological phenomena into scientifically measurable and analyzable data. ”
“I really appreciate all the effort and care you’ve put into this! It’s amazing to see how everything is coming together”