http://www.ttconf.org/
Palo Alto, CA
Our mission is to permanently move a billion people into a state of fundamental wellbeing and flourishing by 2030.
Now there is a mission I can get behind. This was my first year attending the Trans Tech Conf and it certainly will not be my last. There were so many great speakers and this could be a very long article. I’ve included the highlights here and encourage you to participate next year.
We opened the conference with an exercise to connect with other attendees before speaker sessions. We took a few minutes to interact 1:1 and then in groups of 4. It was a great way to kick off the first day. Ironically, the phrases that resonated with me in that first event were all about connection and productivity.
“When you try to be, you lose the connection.”
”Faith is an emotional state.”
”To fulfill a vision, you need energy”
”Efficient does not equal speed”
”Connect by releasing filters”
In the next session, I’ve recapped the speakers that stood out among a great roster of sessions. I may add some speaker recaps, as I am still processing everything I saw and heard.
Muse
I first heard about Muse a year ago and we got to watch the announcement of Muse 2 launch at TTC. This EEG headband helps us train our brains to focus and the free Muse iOS app tracks progress. “Users showed neuroplasticity changes in 4 weeks of using Muse.”
This product completely addresses doubts about meditating. I would love to squelch the feeling of “am I doing this right?” and focus on the experience of meditating.
Data: Muse also has a user friendly privacy policy where you own your data. “Your data will remain strictly anonymous and confidential unless you give explicit permission otherwise.” This is a big win for the founders and consumers.
The founder, Ariel, was part of the early MIT media lab, a Therapist and Neuroscientist. The Muse product combines these talents into one to create a functional wearable thought controlled computing product . Her passion for positive change through meditation (with a tech assist) is infectious.
Founders: Ariel Garten, Trevor Coleman
BIO Beats
This session was a personal highlight for me and opened with a story of a man in his early 30’s who had a heart attack and flatlined. After being brought back to life by medical staff, the quest to find how this could happen to a young healthy man began. The results kept me jaw dropped throughout this talk.
As many of us have done before, we override our natural signals for self-care to get our work done. We ignore messages that tell us we are hungry, thirsty or tired. Beyond certain level of stress, an individual will stop feeling and simply not now how to answer questions like “How are you doing?” When the team studied the long term effects of this on the brain, they found that the brain patterns were similar to the brain of an autistic person. Alexithiama - inability to classify emotion forgetting hunger, thirst My take away, we are making ourselves autistic by continuing this behavior.
The team also found that prolonged rumination showed links to cardiovascular disease. The example given was waking up in the middle of the night, thinking about work and getting up to rewrite that email. Too many of us have done this and there is data to show how unhealthy this continued behavior can be.
The good news is we can change our patterns once we understand them. With the BioBeats wearable, the app tracks heart rate, mood, brain function, sleep patterns, activity and creating habit. The results help you build a baseline and find out where you stress comes from.
BioBeats also offers BioBase which is an 8 week course coaching you on how to better understand your results, as well as how to cope with and reduce stress.
Data: BioBeats data is anonymized and aggregated into groups of 50 people.
PITCHFEST - companies to watch
Motivo - Therapists must complete x number of clinical supervised hours before being approved to practice. The app helps budding therapists to find, screen and connect with clinical supervisors in 45 states and expedite the licensure process. In the pitch we learned how difficult this process was for pre-licensed therapists without proper surfacing the pool of supervisors.
Healium - I sat for a few of their demos in the exhibit area. I found the Muse & iOS AR experience the most rewarding. The Muse EEG detects the gamma brainwaves* and determines the level of positivity we are emitting. The more positive thoughts the user has, the AR butterflies are hatched in the phone experience. The experience reduces stress using XR and help retrain the brain for positivitiy. I found it joyous and so fun!
*Gamma brainwaves measure between 25Hz and 100Hz, with 40Hz being the median. It’s a fast frequency with small amplitude. There is a hightened state of being associated with gamma waves and meditation.
Dr. Sanjay Manchanda
Dr. Sanjay Manchanda has a background in Psychology, body mind therapies and mindfulness. He hold degrees in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Psychology. He described his work in administering electrode placements for tDCS (Transcranial direct current-stimulation) using 40Hz | 10Hz to reduce pain and treat PTSD. After 12 weeks of neuro gamma 40Hz treatment, it decreased PTSD and showed residual effects.
low frequency —> body energy
hight frequency —> intuition
The residual results were encouraging and shows there are alternative to pharmaceuticals and they are available now. For more information on Dr Manchanda’s work, read this article that provides a wonderful breakdown in simple terms.
Peter Freer
EEG reader in a headrest that does not require direct contact with the subject. This one is tough to explain, but the room fell silent as we saw what this technology can do.
Nicole, the organizer of the conference came to the stage to demo the tech. She sat at a chair and was told to concentrate on a topic. Behind here the driving game showed a driver staying on the road. It appeared that as her concentration increased, the speed increased and the car stayed on the path. As soon as the speaker diverted her attention (either by speaking directly to her or handing her a cell phone) the game immediately stopped and the audio “PAY ATTENTION” was delivered. The impact this could have on distracted drivers can prevent numerous accidents and save lives. This is just the beginning of what we can do. You can read more about Peter Freer’s work here.
Reading list
There were several books mentioned throughout the event by speakers. I’ve added to my reading list and wanted to share the knowledge with all of you here.
