Dr. R. Quian Quiroga, of the University of Leicester Department of Engineering, is in your head. Actually his machines are just watching what's in your head. In 2005 he showed that specific neurons were fired when subjects were shown different pictures of Halle Berry or just letters from her name, but not for pictures of anyone else. (The test was apparently, and less excitingly, conducted with more mundane images, like that of the Sydney Opera House and other famous landmarks.) Now he's following up on that research and looking at those specific neurons to predict what the test subject is thinking.
"For example, if the 'Jennifer Aniston neuron' increases its firing then we can predict that the subject is seeing Jennifer Aniston," Quian Quiroga explained. "If the 'Halle Berry neuron' fires, then we can predict that the subject is seeing Halle Berry, and so on."
Also, if the subject is murmuring, "No, no, not 'Catwoman' again. It's such a bad career choice," you get pretty much the same results.
But Quian Quiroga's methods are more scientific. He can record simultaneously from 100 neurons and uses an optimized decoding algorithm to infer the stimulus from the specific neurons firing. He then showed a series of pictures to subjects and discovered he could predict what the subject was seeing: "So, in simple words, we can read the human thought from the neuronal activity."
In even simpler words: "It's no use carrying those books around in front you anymore, lab rats. We know you're thinking about Halle Berry. Wait, Jennifer Aniston. Wait, the Eiffel Tower?"
Add a comment