Scientists Read Mind

Kyoto, Japan.
2008 December 11

Scientist from the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, Kyoto, Japan have developed a method of extracting images directly from the brain.

Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of a subject's cerebral visual cortex and a neural network computer application to successfully extract an image of what the subject was seeing.

The researches first used the MRI to map out blood flow and changes to the blood flow of the cerebral visual cortex while the subject viewed an 10 x10 pixel image. This was repeated and the data was then collected for a set of 400 images. The data for 400 images and fMRI scans where fed into the computer neural network model which extracted the pattern, Building a network for that particular pattern.

fMRIs are a specialized form of MRIs that measures blood flow and blood oxygenation (collectively know as hemodynamics). Hemodynamic have been know to be closely linked to neural activity, active neurons need oxygen for energy increasing capillaries in that localized area of the brain.

Neural Networks in computer science are computer models loosely based on biological neural networks, which are used to model complex relationships between inputs and outs.
A neural network after being designed first reads a data set of know inputs against know outputs, after reading each set it adapts its network to incorporate this into its pattern slowly 'learning' the relationship between the input and outputs one data set at a time.

The computer model was then used to read an MRI of subjects viewing an image not in the initial set and reconstruct it from scratch. Although the reconstructed image is rather crude it can be seen that that it match's the image seen by subjects.



The applications for this technology open up many new possibilities like treating mental disorders by allowing doctors to see the thoughts of a patient and better understanding the condition or 'neural marketing' advertising application can read you thoughts and show you relative adverts as you walk pass a billboard.

if the technology improves, such as better imaging and easier fMRI, like any other technology it also brings up many ethical concerns such as privacy.