A Japanese research team said earlier this month it had conducted experiments that could pave the way for technology that could display people’s dreams on a computer screen.
Researchers at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories succeeded in processing and displaying images directly from the human brain, they said in a study unveiled ahead of publication in the US magazine Neuron.
While the team for now has managed to reproduce only simple images from the brain, they said the technology could eventually be used to figure out dreams and other secrets inside people’s minds.
PHOTO: AP
“It was the first time in the world that it was possible to visualize what people see directly from the brain activity,” the private institute said in a statement.
“By applying this technology, it may become possible to record and replay subjective images that people perceive, like dreams.”
When people look at an object, the eye’s retina recognizes an image that is converted into electrical signals, which go into the brain’s visual cortex.
The team, led by chief researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani, succeeded in catching the signals and then reconstructing what people see.
In their experiment, the researchers showed people the six letters in the word “neuron” and then succeeded in reconstructing the letters on a computer screen by measuring their brain activity.
The team said that it first figured out people’s individual brain patterns by showing them some 400 different still images. (AFP)
日本一個研究小組本月稍早表示，他們已進行的實驗為在電腦螢幕上呈現人類夢境的技術奠下基石。
日本「國際電氣通信基礎技術研究所」的研究員在一篇論文中表示，他們已成功發展出將人類大腦訊息直接轉換成影像呈現的技術；該論文事後已刊載於美國的《神經元》雜誌。
雖然研究小組目前只能重現簡單的腦部圖像，但他們認為這項技術終能解開人類夢境和其他大腦秘密。
該私營研究所在一份聲明稿中表示：「這項可能直接將人類腦部活動影像化的研究，是世界創舉。」
「這項技術可望將人類看到的主觀影像（如夢境）加以記錄及重現。」
當人類注視一個物體時，眼睛的視網膜會辨識其影像，轉換成電子訊號，傳送到大腦的視覺皮質區。
主任研究員神谷之康主持的研究小組，順利擷取到這些訊號，並重現人們眼見之影像。
在他們的實驗中，研究員拿「neuron（神經元）」這六個英文字母給受試者看，測量他們的腦部活動後，這些字母成功重現在電腦螢幕上。
該小組表示，他們起初是給受試者看了約四百張不同的靜態圖像，才找出他們腦中所呈現的個別圖樣。（法新社�翻譯：袁星塵）
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