Brain Technology

I heard on the radio the other day about a new technology that has just been developed that can actually map out on a computer screen what a person is thinking! That's cool.

I have found two different ways this technology has been tested, the first being with a person who is shown a series of film clips and images. The machine attached to his head picks up the electrical signals from his brain and translates them into a picture on another screen, showing a moving image of exactly what is going through his mind. This was fascinating to see because the familiar shapes like faces were reasonably similar to the image that they were being shown whereas the abstract shapes were a lot less similar. Here's a link to the video clip: http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/22/brain-movies/

Another test that has been done is using 12 epileptics who already have small wires in their brains to monitor activity, and in this experiment 4 wires in the medial temporal lobe (the region associated with recognising complex shapes) were used. The participants were shown a series of familiar images, of which they had to chose two which were then layered on top of each other. Their brain signals were transmitted to the computer and they were told to chose one and focus on it until the other fades and disappears. All the experiments were successful. A link to the article: http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/11/12/technology-allows-brain-signals-to-control-computer/20727.html

I think this is amazing, but what is even better is that those developing this technology strongly believe that it could eventually be used to tell what is going on in the minds of people in for instance, a coma. I can't wait for that to happen!