Highschool student partners with SFU music specialist to research the developing teenage brain

Faber reviewing EEG results with Iyer When Burnaby eighth grader Advaith S. Iyer decided to participate in the Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair (GVRSF) for the first time this spring an ambitious research idea emerged. Seeking to test the cognitive load - the amount of work the brain is doing - associated with playing musical instruments, his high school laboratory equipment was insufficient for his complex experiment. Rather than settle for a simpler study, Iyer's mother Lakshmi, a health science professional, reached out to SFU-s Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology (INN), where neuroscientist and musician Sarah Faber provided him with the necessary tools and guidance to bring his blueprint to life. With a passion for music and the developing brain, Iyer's goal was to determine the cognitive load generated from playing musical instruments and compare this with the load produced from other common motor tasks. Faber, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto and resident music specialist at SFU-s INN, consulted with Iyer's family to learn how she could assist. Faber specializes in studying brain activity linked to music listening and was eager to support the study. Under Faber's guidance, Iyer designed an experiment involving a series of tasks for participants to complete, consisting of math problems, word puzzles, Rubik's cubes, playing chess, learning new languages, social media scrolling, playing video games, and most importantly, playing a variety of unique musical instruments.