The Hindu : Front Page : Scientists move to visualise dreams

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Friday, Mar 07, 2008
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Scientists move to visualise dreams

Los Angeles: Scientists have devised a mind-reading technique that could possibly allow them to visualise someone’s dream by analysing brain activity with a medical scanner.

Scientists in the U.S. led by Professor Jack Gallant of the University of California, Berkeley, have built a computer that can “decode” brain activity signals from a scanner and match them with photographs of what a person has seen.

“Our results suggest that it may soon be possible to reconstruct a picture of a person’s visual experience from measurements of brain activity alone,” Professor Gallant wrote in the journal Nature.

The study raises the possibility of the technology being used to visualise scenes from a person’s dreams or memory.

“Our data suggest that there might potentially be enough information in brain activity signals measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to do this in the future... In fact, so much information is available in these signals that one day it may even be possible to reconstruct the visual contents of dreams or visual imagery,” Professor Gallant said.

According to experts, the technique could be useful also in understanding the mental state of a person who is in a coma.

However, it inevitably raises the fear that such technology could be used to interrogate a person for “thought crimes.” — PTI

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