Big Brother's In Your Brain
By Anne Pawsey
The thought police are getting closer, big brother is not only watching you he can see what you are thinking… Actually things aren’t quite that scary yet, but the technology is getting closer.
Scientists in Germany have managed to use an MRI scanner to analyse people’s brain waves and predict what action they will take. In this case whether they will add or subtract 2 numbers.
Participants were asked to decide whether to add or subtract two numbers before they were flashed on a screen. In 70% of cases researchers were able to predict the action purely from looking at the subject’s brain activity. This is the first time this has been achieved; previously scientists could see people thinking about moving a limb but not higher level decision making processes.
The experiment raises all sorts of ethical issues regarding the privacy of people’s thoughts and civil rights campaigners are worried. This is perhaps a little premature; MRI scanners are big heavy things with a nasty habit of stealing other people’s loose change and house keys due to their large magnetic fields. They’ll need to be refined somewhat before they can be used to spy on people.
The scientists, led by Dr. John-Dylan Haynes at Berlin's Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, have also only managed to predict the results of clear cut decisions; most people make far more complex choices every day so it’ll be a while before you need to worry and start wearing a fetching, magnet-repelling foil cap.
PS – actually you’d be better off with a bucket of water on your head; although I admit it’s less fetching!
Get more top science on Anne's page.
Scientists in Germany have managed to use an MRI scanner to analyse people’s brain waves and predict what action they will take. In this case whether they will add or subtract 2 numbers.
Participants were asked to decide whether to add or subtract two numbers before they were flashed on a screen. In 70% of cases researchers were able to predict the action purely from looking at the subject’s brain activity. This is the first time this has been achieved; previously scientists could see people thinking about moving a limb but not higher level decision making processes.
The experiment raises all sorts of ethical issues regarding the privacy of people’s thoughts and civil rights campaigners are worried. This is perhaps a little premature; MRI scanners are big heavy things with a nasty habit of stealing other people’s loose change and house keys due to their large magnetic fields. They’ll need to be refined somewhat before they can be used to spy on people.
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| An MRI scanner: not very portable. |
PS – actually you’d be better off with a bucket of water on your head; although I admit it’s less fetching!
Get more top science on Anne's page.
Image: Martin Walls
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