Reading the thought

1996/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Teknologia

Indeed, thanks to the work of Japanese researchers we can read our thoughts.

Researchers attach electrodes to the head of the volunteer and the encephalogram collects the electrical activity of the brain. The computer is programmed several words that appear on the screen. The volunteer thinks of one of these words and the brain, as a result of stimulation, emits waves called P300. Of the words that have appeared on your screen, the volunteer will come in twenty-five seconds.

The aim of this technique is to facilitate the communicative capacity of people with nerve disease leaving the brain. The method of choosing the words of the computer screen through the movement of pupils and eyelids is already underway, but whoever cannot make any movement can communicate with the computer, even if it is simple.

In Japan, Tottori University has tested this system for a year and want to have it ready for a couple of years.