A team of neuroscientists has been able to decode electrical activity in the brain in a way they said may one day let doctors “read” the thought patterns of patients unable to speak due to stroke or paralysis.
The research -- conducted at the University of California, Berkeley – involved tracking the brain activity of 15 people as they listened to a normal conversation. Based on correlations they could make between sound and brain activity, researchers were able to predict the words the volunteers had heard solely from the activity in their brains.
Researchers said the findings of the study, published the journal Public Library of Science Biology, could have “huge” implications for patients who cannot speak.
But they cautioned scientists are a long way from coming up with systems that will allow them eavesdrop on people’s thoughts.
“This research is based on sounds a person actually hears, but to use it for reconstructing imagined conversations, these principles would have to apply to someone’s internal verbalizations,” noted author Brian N. Pasley.
The words involved in the study: Waldo, structure, doubt and property.