Scientists says minds can be read. They have found a way to 'mind-read'. Richard Kerbaj writes that researchers proclaim a breakthrough that could reveal one's closest secrets.

Mind Readers

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They say they can pore over the deepest nooks and niches of the brain which will enable them to watch as words are being formed as people think and speak.

Electrodes implanted in the skull

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In its current form, the research would have few other applications, since implanting electrode arrays in the brain is hazardous and could be justified only to deal with severe medical conditions, according to Leuthardt.

Major Breakthrough?

Networks of electrodes were implanted into people's skulls to pin down the areas of the brain that generate the 40-odd sounds from which the English language is constructed. It was found by the scientists, that each of the sounds has a unique signal, and these could be spotted forming as their subjects express them aloud or in their thoughts (heads).
This could mean an important breakthrough because, it could allow scientists to translate people's thoughts into words, potentially allowing those with severe paralysis to speak through a computer.

The director of The Center for Innovation in Neuroscience and Technology, at the Washington University, Eric Leuthardt, who led the study, said his team had so far isolated signals corresponding to four of the forty sounds. This is too few to translate thoughts into whole words or sentences, but the research has established that this could become possible.

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Leuthardt said: "What it shows is that the brain is not the black box that we have philosophically assumed it to be. Instead, we can access the information that the brain is generating. I'm not going to say that I can fully read someone's mind. I can't. But I have evidence that it is possible."

Epileptic Patients

The research performed by Leuthardt and his colleagues based their research on four people who are suffering from severe epilepsy. An array of 64 electrodes were implanted in their heads, on the surface of the brain, to see if they could find the causes of their convulsions. The electrodes were also able to monitor the parts of the 'brain thought' to generate language.

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Leuthardt's more startling findings was that the signal generated when a subject was asked to speak, a sound was different from the signal produced when they thought about the same sound. The implication is that in future, it will be possible to detect what people want to say and also to read their thoughts.

The goal is to try to find ways of helping people with locked-in syndrome, a condition where patients are conscious but cannot move or talk.

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