Posted on 12/12/2008 9:57:49 AM PST by LibWhacker
Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.
The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a computer crunched the data and learned to associate the various changes in brain activity with the different image designs.
Then, when the test subjects were shown a completely new set of images, such as the letters N-E-U-R-O-N, the system was able to reconstruct and display what the test subjects were viewing based solely on their brain activity.
For now, the system is only able to reproduce simple black-and-white images. But Dr. Kang Cheng, a researcher from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, suggests that improving the measurement accuracy will make it possible to reproduce images in color.
“These results are a breakthrough in terms of understanding brain activity,” says Dr. Cheng. “In as little as 10 years, advances in this field of research may make it possible to read a person’s thoughts with some degree of accuracy.”
The researchers suggest a future version of this technology could be applied in the fields of art and design — particularly if it becomes possible to quickly and accurately access images existing inside an artist’s head. The technology might also lead to new treatments for conditions such as psychiatric disorders involving hallucinations, by providing doctors a direct window into the mind of the patient.
ATR chief researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani says, “This technology can also be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also become possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.”
The research results appear in the December 11 issue of US science journal Neuron.
OK, so what am I thinking right now?
Yikes
The US has been steadily overtaken in the field of science over the last 2 decades, its a shame really.
Do we really want to do this ... interrogations .... thought crimes ?
Did they extract that little white box with a red x inside? I’m not surprised.
- Winston Smith
Wow, that’s pretty neat.
This should be a huge development for New Agers who will no longer have to keep dream diaries on their nightstands; Now they'll just have to TiVo themselves.
Pleeeeeeeeaaaasseeee don’t let my wife get a hold of this technology.
Wow!
What you think about really can affect your health!
This is an amazing discovery if true.
This would have amazing application in the clinical field.
Shame on you.
69 dude!
I was thinking, could this be used to help to treat the mentally ill. Second thought, maybe, no one really wants to see those images.
Sorry, don’t know why that is. It was showing up fine on my browser — until I cleared the cache and tried again.
This is similar, but much faster and less invasive than tests I heard about duing an Air Force neural network seminar. If a lab animal was killed while viewing an image, that image could be detected in the animal's brain.
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