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Brain Implant Is Able To Capture Your Inner Dialogue
Researchers at Stanford University have developed a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) that can capture the inner dialogue of a person.
"This is the first time we've managed to understand what brain activity looks like when you just think about speaking," study co-author Erin Kunz, an electrical engineer at Stanford University, said in a statement. "For people with severe speech and motor impairments, [brain-computer interfaces] capable of decoding inner speech could help them communicate much more easily and more naturally."
(Via LiveScience.)
The results could help people who are unable to speak communicate more easily with others. Unlike some previous systems, the new brain-computer interface does not require people to attempt to physically speak. Instead, they just have to think what they want to say.
(Private inner speech decoded)
Speech brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) show promise in restoring communication to people with paralysis but have also prompted discussions regarding their potential to decode private inner speech. Separately, inner speech may be a way to bypass the current approach of requiring speech BCI users to physically attempt speech, which is fatiguing and can slow communication.Using multi-unit recordings from four participants, we found that inner speech is robustly represented in the motor cortex and that imagined sentences can be decoded in real time. The representation of inner speech was highly correlated with attempted speech, though we also identified a neural “motor-intent” dimension that differentiates the two.
We investigated the possibility of decoding private inner speech and found that some aspects of free-form inner speech could be decoded during sequence recall and counting tasks.
Finally, we demonstrate high-fidelity strategies that prevent speech BCIs from unintentionally decoding private inner speech.
The first time I read about this idea was in Daemon, the amazing and still futuristic 2009 novel by Daniel Suarez. He describes how mind-reading might be accomplished with MRI and what can be done with it by an autonomous system:
"...You’re here so I can determine whether your motivations are compatible with mine." Sobol gestured as if he were physically present. "The equipment around you is a powerful functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. It is scanning the neural activity of your brain in real time. Neurons work like logic gates on a computer chip, firing electrical signals in specific sequences to accomplish certain tasks or to conceive certain generalized concepts." Sobol paused."It is a controversial fact that technology has discovered a way to see not only truth or falsehood in a person, but their very thought processes in action. Even before they can act upon those thoughts. Dissembling or deliberate deceit is orchestrated by the frontal lobes . . .." The frontal lobes were highlighted on the left-hand screen—over the image of what was presumably Mosely’s brain. Other areas were highlighted in turn as Sobol continued, "Fear, aggression, empathy, and recognition all have their unique signatures in the human brain. Mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, also have their telltale patterns. So you see, you can hide nothing from me. I am about to know you better than anyone has ever known you. Perhaps even better than you know yourself."
Mosely was starting to tremble again. He saw the colors change in the brain diagram on the left-hand screen. He instinctively knew it was fear.
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