MoBI for Neuroergonomics in Music, Movement and Meditation: Human Data Management and Analysis, Brain-Computer Interfaces and Digital Twins

This Research Topic gathers the scientific outcomes of the Movement, Music and Brain Health AccelNet - EBRAINS initiative, a transatlantic collaboration bringing together researchers, engineers, AI experts, clinicians, ethicists, and performing artists to advance Mobile Brain-Body Imaging (MoBI) as a framework for studying the brain in ecologically valid, real-world settings as well as applications in the development of digital brain twins, brain-computer musical interfaces and creativity in sound and movement. The contributions span three complementary strands. The first addresses the science of creativity, contemplative practice, and embodied cognition, drawing on invited talks and working sessions that examined how music, dance, and meditation can serve as rigorous experimental paradigms rather than peripheral applications, and how brain-body dynamics unfold during live artistic and contemplative activity. The second strand focuses on the technical and normative infrastructure that makes such research reproducible and shareable: data standards and FAIR-aligned management for multimodal neural, physiological, and kinematic recordings collected outside the laboratory; computational tools for quantifying expressive movement; digital brain twin pipelines for modeling neurodegenerative disease; brain-computer interfaces for creative expression and sound generation; and the ethical, governance, and responsible-innovation frameworks required as neurotechnology moves into cultural, clinical, and public settings. Together, these contributions document both what was learned and how it can be replicated, offering the community a set of methods, protocols, datasets, and open resources for conducting neuroscience in naturalistic environments.

The Research Topic is supported by multimedia materials, including video recordings of a meditation session, a neuroconcert, and a neuroballet conducted at the Teatro Niccolini in Florence, Italy. The editors welcome contributions from authors working in any of the research areas included in the Special Issue.

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• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: mobile brain-body imaging, brain-computer interface, BCI, neuroergonomics, neurotechnology, music, embodied cognition, meditation, digital brain twins, multimodal neural encoding

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.