(Newswire.net — November 12, 2014) — Berkley, Ca. – Researchers from the University of California, Berkley, may have found the way to decode our thoughts as they are developing the first mind-reading device. It is not about focusing on the specific color or the direction; the researchers say they can decode the ‘inner voice’ of thinking, reading or an opinion that we would rather keep to ourselves.
“If you’re reading text in a newspaper or a book, you hear a voice in your own head. We’re trying to decode the brain activity related to that voice to create a medical prosthesis that can allow someone who is paralyzed or locked in to speak,” Brian Pasley told New Scientist magazine.
The researchers from Barclay use voluntaries to allocate and decode neurons activity responsible for our inner voice. Voluntaries was first asked to read out loud the well known speeches such as the Gettysburg Address by President Abraham Lincoln, or John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, while they read from the display. Then they were asked to do that silently as researchers recorded the brain activity.
Even though the researchers successfully decoded personal thoughts, it is not yet possible to build a device that will be successful in reading minds, Stephanie Martin, who worked on the study with Pasley, told the magazine.
The researchers are currently fine-tuning the algorithms, especially the area concerned with speaking rate and different pronunciations of the same word. The team is also trying to guess what a person is listening to by playing Pink Floyd songs to volunteers.
“It all helps us understand different aspects of how the brain processes it,” said Pasley.
For a long time, the neuroscientists have been trying to unlock the secrets of thoughts. In one of the previous studies, they managed to produce sounds from the thoughts, as they used volunteers who suffered epilepsy, who had already installed the necessary electrodes in their brains.
They discovered that certain neurons in the brain’s temporal lobe only responded actively to particular aspects of sound.
Interesting though is the fact that, among other movies, Star Trek helped scientists from UC Berkeley monitor the blood flow in human brain with MRI scanners, and recreate images similar to those seen in the movie.