By
analysing MRI images of the brain with an elegant mathematical model, it is
possible to reconstruct thoughts more accurately than ever before. In this way,
researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen have succeeded in determining
which letter a test subject was looking at. The journal Neuroimage has accepted
the article, which will be published soon.
The
researchers 'taught' a model how small volumes of 2x2x2 mm from the brain scans
– known as voxels – respond to individual pixels. By combining all the
information about the pixels from the voxels, it became possible to reconstruct
the image viewed by the subject. The result was not a clear image, but a
somewhat fuzzy speckle pattern. In this study, the researchers used
hand-written letters.
"In
our further research we will be working with a more powerful MRI scanner,"
explains Sanne Schoenmakers, who is working on a thesis about decoding
thoughts. "Due to the higher resolution of the scanner, we hope to be able
to link the model to more detailed images. We are currently linking images of
letters to 1200 voxels in the brain; with the more powerful scanner we will
link images of faces to 15,000 voxels."
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-08-letters-brain.html
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