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Meeting of Minds

Neuroscience and dance performance presented at the United Nations AI for Good Summit in Geneva

Neuroscience and dance performance presented at the United Nations AI for Good Summit in Geneva
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Meeting of Minds was presented at the United Nations AI for Good Summit in Geneva on May 31, 2024, showcasing how mobile brain imaging and AI can reveal the neural basis of human connection and creativity.

The Performance

The performance tackles the timely issue of social division, featuring dancers Lauren Serrano and Tyler Orcutt who start in conflict and gradually move toward cooperation. The choreography by Andy and Dionne Noble incorporates elements known to trigger neural synchrony:

  • Eye contact
  • Physical touch
  • Synchronized movement

Live Brain Visualization

Thanks to projections designed by Shepherd School doctoral candidate Badie Khaleghian, the audience could watch in real-time how the dancers’ brains responded throughout the performance, seeing their neural synchronization evolve as they moved from conflict to cooperation.

My Role

I traveled to Geneva as part of the UH BRAIN Center team to record the mobile brain imaging data during the live performance at the UN summit.

Impact

This performance demonstrates how art can be prescribed as medicine — research that could lead to personalized art prescriptions based on music-based interventions that neuromodulate brain activity to improve health and wellbeing.

Collaborators

  • NobleMotion Dance - Andy Noble, Dionne Noble, Lauren Serrano, Tyler Orcutt
  • Rice University - Anthony Brandt, Badie Khaleghian
  • UH BRAIN Center - Dr. Jose L. Contreras-Vidal
  • Technical Team - Maxine Annel Pacheco-Ramírez, Aime Aguilar-Herrera

Origin

Meeting of Minds began in November 2023 as a follow-up to the success of LiveWire. It started as a TEDx talk at Sam Houston State University by Andy Noble, which sparked the development of the full MoMo project — exploring the neural dynamics of human connection through dance and performance. The most recent data collection took place on October 2, 2025.

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