The ability to see a persons thoughts sounds like something from science fiction but last year at the Society for Neuroscience meeting Jack Gallant, a leading neural decoder at the University of California, Berkeley, presented some impressive results. They have developed a computational model that uses functional MRI (fMRI) data to decode information from an individual\’s visual cortex – the part of the brain responsible for processing visual stimuli. He and colleague Shinji Nishimoto showed that they could create a crude reproduction of a movie clip that someone was watching just by viewing their brain activity.
They used fMRI to measure visual cortex activity in people looking at more than a thousand photographs. This allowed them to develop a computational model and \”train\” their decoder to understand how each person\’s visual cortex processes information.
Next, participants were shown a random set of just over 100 previously unseen photographs. Based on patterns identified in the first set of fMRIs, the team was able to accurately predict which image was being observed.
Scientists just may one day be able to extract dreams, memories and imagery.
(Journal reference – Nature DOI: 10.1038/nature06713)
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