Our brains are just like sensors.
Characteristics of a good sensor:
- Drift: good sensors do not drift and maintain a baseline. This is analogous to brain maintaining focus.
- Signal-to-Noise Sensitivity: ability to detect a signal in the background of noise. Analogous to the brain being able to pick out a sensory signal such as someone calling your name in a crowd.
- Resolution: the ability of a good sensor to differentiate between two close lying signals, like a brain being able to distinguish between two similar things.
The concepts of Sensitivity and Resolution are contrary: you can’t have both of them. The idea is to know what it is you want and find a balance between the two.
So how do you calibrate this brain sensor?