According to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, based on their new research, technological advances are being made that bring us closer to better understanding how the brain works and how people think. Though we are rather limited in our abilities , we are now quite a few steps further than people ever imagined regarding our abilities to read people’s minds. Scientists report that they have developed the ability to reliably predict which noun ( from a group of 60) that a person is thinking of, based entirely on brain activity patterns. The researchers discovered that the brain identifies objects by what they can do for us, in terms of their relationship to humans and not through encoding or representation of physical properties. The nouns that they were able to identify were all simple concrete nouns ( generally tangible objects). It was concluded that human brains analyze objects by determining whether a person could take shelter in it; how a person could hold or manipulate it; and what it would be like to eat it. This experiment was the first time humans were able to identify thought patterns using concepts and ideas and not images. These developments would provide tremendous aid in advancing research and understanding of many psychological disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. Magnetoencephalography (MEG), is the technology that is used to study brain function. This is a new and upcoming field of experiemental research that could truly lead to ground breaking changes.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_661844.html
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/25430/?a=f
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment