Re:Scientists extract images directly from brain (2008)
by ryanwaggoner on Tuesday July 07, 2009 @06:47PM
(#692774)
My big question would be whether the patterns that they're detecting in the brain are similar for different people? For example, if I imagine an apple, do my "brain patterns" resemble someone else's when they also think of an apple? If not, seems like training this device would be a pain in the ass, because you'd have to do it for each person. But if so...imagine a huge resource of patterns for different thoughts, feelings, mental pictures, etc. Hopefully this comment makes sense...
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Re:Scientists extract images directly from brain (2008)
by joeyo on Tuesday July 07, 2009 @06:57PM
(#692791)
In general the patterns are the same and the brain areas involved are the same but there is definitely individual variability, too. There is probably much less individual variability in visual cortex than, say, language representation areas (consider English speakers vs Spanish speakers) but there is likely enough that they have to retrain their algorithms for each individual to achieve optimum discrimination.
Re:Scientists extract images directly from brain (2008)
by Asmodeus on Tuesday July 07, 2009 @09:49PM
(#693050)
There is indeed enough variation. I unfortunately can't find the link, but they went further and had people imagine something like the letter 'n,' and of the whopping eight people they tested, one came out completely garbled, even after training.
Also, I suspect that variation increases with abstractness, so it will almost certainly be impossible to extract high level thought without extensive cooperation.
For example, the brain state that the word 'conciousness' invokes in me is going to be entirely different from you because I have different associations, examples, knowledge, and general representation.
Now try to extract an entire sentence without training first. Have fun!