Eric Hungenberg hit a rough patch between miles seven and 10 of the Chattanooga Marathon.
We know this from electric waves bursting out of his brain, through his skull, to sensors wrapped around his forehead. Those sensors transformed the electrical activity into data points that traveled via Bluetooth to a cell phone in his pocket, which beamed to a computer near the finish line. On the screen, multicolored lines dipped and rose under the gaze of fascinated researchers from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Hungenberg’s nerves, his suffering, his joy, his emotional peaks and valleys could all be seen on a website, live, thanks to an electroencephalography headset—a Star Trek-looking device with a series of five sensors that measure electrical activity emitted from the brain. For the first time, researchers could peek inside the head of marathoner.
“The brain emits these waves at different wavelengths that are tied to certain emotions. We wanted to figure out a way to capture that during a marathon,” said Gary Liguori, the head of the department of Health and Human Performance at UT-Chattanooga.
Liguori partnered with his colleague, Andrew Bailey, and a programmer, Alex Cruikshank, to develop a web application that would visualize the brain activity of a runner, live, during a race. They convinced first-time marathoner Hungenberg—a professor of sports administration at UT Chattanooga—to wear the headset during the race. Kelsey Cline, a graduate student and experienced runner, also wore the device for the concurrent half marathon.
Their brainwave data was broadcast in real time for both the researchers and a curious audience to view. The webpage showed five rippling spots, representing the electrical activity in different sections of the brain. A graph beneath translated that activity into three variables: activity, focus, and excitement.
“With my emotions on display for the world to see, to say I had a little bit of anxiety would be an understatement,” Hungenberg said.
That anxiety is reflected in a large spike of the excitement variable just before the start line.
At miles seven through 10, Hungenberg’s excitement levels dipped while his focus increased. Hungenberg said this was the worst part of the race, and correlated the measurements to pain in his knee.
“I was focusing really hard on a running style that would minimize the pain at that point in the race,” he said, which is why his level of focus in the chart increased. At mile 10, he adjusted a brace on his knee and felt immediate relief. His excitement level started to rise and his focus dipped.
“We were kind of surprised at how much we could see,” said Cruikshank, who was responsible for visualizing the data into a graph that a broader audience could understand.
The researchers all said one of the most interesting insights from the experiment came when comparing the brain activity between Hungenberg, running his first marathon, and Cline, who had run several marathons and half marathons before.
Cline’s excitement levels stayed relatively steady throughout, while Hungenberg’s spiked more than 15 times. Liguori attributes the difference to lack of experience.
“One of the immediate thoughts we had is a novice runner gets way too excited before, during, and after the race,” Liguori said. Because the brain needs nutrients when it becomes more active, the higher level of excitement could actually reduce the amount of energy a runner has. “If excitement is off the charts, it’s not going to help him perform,” Liguori said.
He, Cruikshank, and Hungenberg all cautioned against drawing conclusions from this data alone. “We built this more for entertainment purposes, to see if we could actually pull it off,” Liguori said.
Now they are going to take a deeper dive into the measurements to see if they can build a more accurate picture of Hungenberg's and Cline’s thoughts. This, they said, could translate into a new measurement tool that runners can use to improve performance, similar to the way heart rate monitors and GPS watches are currently used.
Hungenberg, who teaches students how to organize and market sporting events, foresees another use for the technology: making marathons more exciting to watch.
“I think allowing a fan to get a real-life depiction inside an athlete’s head is fascinating and would really enhance the spectating experience,” he said.
Fans could watch how they run, and also how they feel. That is, of course, if they let us take a peek inside their brain.