Mind Reading Breakthrough by Scientists Hailed
Neuroscientists at the University of California-Berkeley have reportedly developed a technique that will allow them to decipher electrical signals in people's brain and then translate that information into words.
"This is huge for patients who have damage to their speech mechanisms because of a stroke or Lou Gehrig's disease and can't speak," Professor Robert Knight, coauthor of the study published in the journal PLos Biology, said.
"If you could eventually reconstruct imagined conversations from brain activity, thousands of people could benefit," he added.
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The research, which was led by Brian Pasley, produced a method for comparing the electrical signals in a person's brain to the words they listen to. When scientists decoded the signals with the help of a computer model, they were able to recreate the words the individuals thought.
Knight explains that the brain uses the same part of the brain to perform various functions involving actions or thoughts. He told Fox News the process "is a fundamental principle of the brain."
"The area that performs a cognitive or behavioral function is also activated when you imagine that function. For example, let's say you raise your right arm. Then if you imagine raising your right arm, the same areas that were active when you move your arm are working when you imagine it."
The study required the help of 15 volunteers who were receiving neurosurgical treatments for epilepsy. The neurosurgeons used electrodes attached to the patients temporal lobes and recorded the brains activity.
The data, which was recorded in five to 10 minute increments, was then used to reconstruct and produce the synthesized sounds that the patients heard.
"There is some evidence that perception and imagery may be pretty similar in the brain. If you can understand the relationship well enough between the brain recordings and sound, you could either synthesize the actual sound a person is thinking, or just write out the words with a type of interface device." Knight said.
