It might seem the stuff of science fiction, but a mind-reading device is being
developed by scientists which can evesdrop on your inner-voice.
Reseachers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a machine
and computer programme which converts brain activity into sounds and words.
Speech activates specific neurons as the brain works interpret the sounds as
words. Each word activates a slightly different set of neurons.
Now scientists have started to develop an algorithm that can pick up the
activity and translate it back into words in the hope it might help people
who are unable to speak.
"If you're reading text in a newspaper or book, you hear a voice in your
own head," Brian Pasley told New Scientist magazine.
"We're trying to decode the brain activity related to that voice to create a medical prosthesis that can allow someone who is paralysed or locked in to speak."
The team recorded the brain activity of seven people undergoing epilepsy surgery while they looked at a screen displaying the nusery rhyme Humpty Dumpty, the Gettysbury Address or the inaugural speech of President John F Kennedy.
Their brain activity was monitored as they read aloud the text and when they read it silently in their heads.
From the spoken data the team managed to build a personal 'decoder' for each patient which interpreted the information and turned into a visual representation.
They then applied the decoder to brain activity during silent reading and found that they could reconstruct several words that were being thought just through neural imaging alone.
The reseachers also tested the decode and algorithm with Pink Floyd songs to see which neurons respond to different musical notes.
Although, at an early stage, the team is hopeful that eventually it could be used to monitor what people are thinking when they can no longer speak.
In 2011, researchers at UC Berkeley used MRI scanners to monitor the blood flow in people's brains as they watched films including Madagascar 2, Pink Panther 2 and Star Trek unfold on a screen.
After analysing how the brain's visual centre responded to on-screen movements, the scientists created a computer program which could accurately guess what the person was looking at.
By monitoring the brain activity of people while they watched Hollywood movie trailers, researchers were able to recreate a moving picture similar to the real footage being played.
In 2010 the University of Utah provied that they could pick up the words yes, no, hot, cold, hungry, thirsty, hello, goodbye, more and less by placing electrodes directly onto the brain.
Source
"We're trying to decode the brain activity related to that voice to create a medical prosthesis that can allow someone who is paralysed or locked in to speak."
The team recorded the brain activity of seven people undergoing epilepsy surgery while they looked at a screen displaying the nusery rhyme Humpty Dumpty, the Gettysbury Address or the inaugural speech of President John F Kennedy.
Their brain activity was monitored as they read aloud the text and when they read it silently in their heads.
From the spoken data the team managed to build a personal 'decoder' for each patient which interpreted the information and turned into a visual representation.
They then applied the decoder to brain activity during silent reading and found that they could reconstruct several words that were being thought just through neural imaging alone.
The reseachers also tested the decode and algorithm with Pink Floyd songs to see which neurons respond to different musical notes.
Although, at an early stage, the team is hopeful that eventually it could be used to monitor what people are thinking when they can no longer speak.
In 2011, researchers at UC Berkeley used MRI scanners to monitor the blood flow in people's brains as they watched films including Madagascar 2, Pink Panther 2 and Star Trek unfold on a screen.
After analysing how the brain's visual centre responded to on-screen movements, the scientists created a computer program which could accurately guess what the person was looking at.
By monitoring the brain activity of people while they watched Hollywood movie trailers, researchers were able to recreate a moving picture similar to the real footage being played.
In 2010 the University of Utah provied that they could pick up the words yes, no, hot, cold, hungry, thirsty, hello, goodbye, more and less by placing electrodes directly onto the brain.
Source
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