Scientists reconstruct visual image from fMRI scan

[Jubal Early]

Fuckin crazy. The science itself seems to make sense, but the idea of reading a person's mind in a way... mindblowing. Sounds like something from Star Trek.

Scientists extract images directly from brain ::: Pink Tentacle

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.

AFP: Dreams may no longer be secret with Japan computer screen

A slightly more technical article.

EDIT: Can't link to m e t a filter because the m e t a... um, filter, lol. Anyways, where I read all this
m e t afilter.com/77353/Dreaming-is-a-private-thing

[JSN]

i wonder which westerners developed it first.

[AmericaOverAll]

We are a long way from projecting dreams and thoughts on some screen.

[gasguzzler]

Originally Posted by AmericaOverAll

We are a long way from projecting dreams and thoughts on some screen.

Of course, but then again the Wright Brother's first flight wasn't transatlantic.

[Eugenicist]

Originally Posted by JSN

i wonder which westerners developed it first.

Some guy was arguing with me the other day about how Japan is 20 years ahead of the west technologically and he kept using PS3 as an example of technology the west is too incompetent to achieve. Anyway, after a long argument, we found out the PS3s chips were specially developed in Texas.

[rezpect]

Originally Posted by gasguzzler

Of course, but then again the Wright Brother's first flight wasn't transatlantic.

good reply

[DrSatanDracula]

It's a pretty simple thing to do.

You take a "picture" of the brain when it is thinking about anything simple, then code in "when brain mimics this, show this" to the computer, then when someone thinks of that, it shows up on the screen.

It's the same way that cybernetics is being developed. Fake arms that move from thought via patterns of electric charges in the brain they recognize as indicative of moving this and that limb.

[Jubal Early]

Exactly, gasguzzler. And technology is advancing much more quickly today than it was a century ago.

[Lubaolong]

Originally Posted by Eugenicist

Some guy was arguing with me the other day about how Japan is 20 years ahead of the west technologically and he kept using PS3 as an example of technology the west is too incompetent to achieve. Anyway, after a long argument, we found out the PS3s chips were specially developed in Texas.

What is made in Texas?

[DevilEyes]

Amazing how far technology has come...