A patient undergoing fMRI
Have you ever thought how cool it would be if you could record your dreams or thoughts and replay them? Scientists may actually have brought us closer to that fantasy.
A team of University of California researchers experimented on themselves. The test required that participants lie motionless within an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) machine for about two hours. They stared at a dot as brief movie clips played in the background. The team had fed some 18 million one-second film clips into a computer. The computer then tried to match images from those clips to what the fMRI picked up from the participants’ brain scans. The experimental results are mixed. For example, some of the recorded images are recognizable as human faces, which is what was being shown to the participants. Others, such as one that shows elephants walking, are much more blurry and unidentifiable.
Of what use could this experiment possibly be? Eventually, the process might provide brain stimulation for people who have trouble processing visual information. Or, stroke victims and other people who cannot communicate through normal methods may receive a new way to express themselves. A therapist might be able to visualize what pictures play in the brain of a person suffering from hallucinations.
A development this remarkable has also raised fears, of course. Spy-movie scenarios of mind-reading or eavesdropping on one’s brainwaves are not a threat, however, since the process requires that the subject be a willing participant. But who knows what the future holds for this new field of psychological research?
Image credit: Corbis
Related Links
- Computer Reconstructs Movie Scenes from Brain Scans
Read a description of the experiment at this site.
(Source: Seattle Times, September 22, 2011) - UC Berkeley Scientists “See” Movies in the Mind
This article provides more detail about the experiment.
(Source: ABC News, September 22, 2011) - fMRI Reads the Images in Your Brain—We Know What You’re Looking At
Watch a video about Japanese researchers working on similar experiments.
(Source: Singularity Hub; accessed October 31, 2011) - Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FMRI
Learn more about how fMRI works.
(Source: Wikipedia; accessed October 31, 2011)
I think it would be AWESOME!!
That could be FANTASTIC!!!! I’ve always wanted to watch my dreams, I think it’d be so unique!!
if these can project dreams, can they project day-dreams or thoughts?
COOL BUT CREAPY
That is so cool!
thats so cool
Thats pretty neat; i wonder how long that took, and how on earth those people were able to figure that out!!!
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Cool!
Girlll!
Awsome
this is really intreastting
COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
haha
cool
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wow
SO COOL
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now we just need to make that possible with videos
This is gonna rule ill finally now what I dream about I always FORGET
it would be cool to do that 🙂
this story is lame but it is cool to learn about how your mind can change state this is like mk ultra project and how you can watch your dreams
thats so awesome i would really want to try that out!!!! 🙂
it is cool nd i would like to try 🙂
who made this brain thing
I love cheese more than i like cheese!!
This is cool but creepy at the same time, but i would like to try it.
I get to see my dreams finally
LOL 😀
Awsome!
Right onth-is helped me sort things right out.