Conference: From Quantum Sensors to Brain Science

Understanding how the human brain supports intelligence, decision-making, and interaction in real-world settings is a central challenge in science. This project supports a national workshop that brings together researchers from neuroscience, physics, and engineering to advance a new class of quantum sensing technologies for studying the brain. These technologies make it possible to measure brain activity while people move, speak, and interact naturally, conditions that better reflect how thinking and decision-making occur in everyday life. By fostering collaboration across disciplines, the workshop aims to accelerate the development of tools that can transform how scientists study communication and behavior, while also expanding access to brain research that includes children, clinical populations, and a broader range of institutions. The workshop focuses on wearable magnetoencephalography (MEG) systems based on optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs), a quantum sensing technology that enables high-resolution measurement of brain activity with greater flexibility than previous systems. The central problem is how to align emerging sensing capabilities with the needs of cognitive neuroscience, particularly for studying dynamic processes such as naturalistic language use and real-time decision-making. Through structured discussions and interdisciplinary breakout sessions, the workshop will develop a roadmap that integrates theoretical frameworks from cognitive science with engineering constraints from quantum sensing. The resulting guidelines will help advance quantum sensing technology in a way that directly supports the study of cognition and behavior in realistic environments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2622304 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Esti Blanco-Elorrieta | Institution: New York University, NEW YORK, NY | Award Amount: $70,251 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2622304 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2622304.html