14 DAY TRIAL // Reading the minds of others is a dream that most of us had at least once in their lifetime, and for good reason – things would be a lot simpler if we only knew what and what not to say to a person, or how to behave so as to make a positive impression. Currently, researchers in Japan are perfecting a technology that might one day allow us to do just that, and more. Yukiyasu Kamitani, the man in charge of the project, says that one day it may even be possible to "make a videotape of a dream."
Kamitani, working at Kyoto's ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, in Japan, and his colleagues, use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to create images that people are thinking of from scratch, though admittedly only in black and white for now. "By analysing the brain signals when someone is seeing an image, we can reconstruct that image," says the researcher.
Right now, only words and basic symbols can be interpreted by the special fMRI technology the Japanese team designed, but the lead scientist says that, with progress, it may become possible to obtain higher resolution images that would comprise more pixels, and which would also be colored.
Previous attempts at reading minds focused more on finding correlations between a specific type of brain activity, a pattern of impulses and certain images. Test subjects were given “preset” photos to look at, and their brain signals were recorded when going over each separate image. When different images were presented, a computer simply analyzed the database and scanned for the closest match.
However, the researchers draw attention to a very "thorny" problem. "If you have a technique that allows you to read out what people are thinking we need clearer ethical guidelines about when and how you are able to do this. A lot of people want their minds to be read – take for example a paralyzed person. They want us to read their thoughts. But it shouldn't be possible to do this for commercial purposes."
"If the image quality improves, it could have a very serious impact on our privacy and other issues. We will have to discuss with many people – not just scientists – how to apply this technology," Kamitani concludes.