Telepathy and the Brain
July 3rd 2011 21:21
Telepathy has long been the bastion of science fiction. One day, that may come to an end.
Researchers at the University of Western Ontario are hoping to link real science to mind-reading, while leaving the fictional aspect of telepathy by the wayside.
In a paper published in the Journal of Neuroscience, university scientists were able to forecast human actions solely by analyzing images of test subjects’ brain activity.
According to Jason Gallivan, a Western PHD student and one of the paper’s authors, this research is at the cutting edge of neuroscience.
“There’s not much research that examines the intention-related signals that occur into the brain prior to movement,” Gallivan said. “We wanted to tap into the important planning processes that precede movement.”
The study subjects were asked to perform one of three tasks while their brains were scanned by a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine. Gallivan and his colleagues then watched for changes in activity in different areas of the brain.
“It’s exploratory, proof of concept work,” said Gallivan. “We (were able to) actually harness these brain signals and predict the subject’s actions.”
Important clinical implications: The ability to read and understand brain signals brings researchers closer to using neural messages to control prosthetic limbs.
This could have a tremendous impact on the quality of life for people suffering from spinal cord injuries.
The three tasks used in the study: Grasping the top of an object, grasping the bottom of an object, and reaching out and touching an object.
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