A device which reads the thoughts of brain-damaged patients could become a reality, scientists claimed, after proving they could tell what someone was hearing just by decoding their brain waves.
Any such device is a long way off because researchers would have to make the technology much more accurate and find a way to apply it to sounds which the patient merely thinks of, rather than hears.
It would also require electrodes to be placed beneath the skull onto the brain itself, because no sensors exist which could detect the tiny patterns of electrical activity non-invasively.
But the proof-of-concept study published in the Public Library of Sciences Biology journal could offer hope to thousands of brain-damaged patients who face the daily agony of being unable to communicate with their loved ones.
Source:
Mind reading device could become reality
Any such device is a long way off because researchers would have to make the technology much more accurate and find a way to apply it to sounds which the patient merely thinks of, rather than hears.
It would also require electrodes to be placed beneath the skull onto the brain itself, because no sensors exist which could detect the tiny patterns of electrical activity non-invasively.
But the proof-of-concept study published in the Public Library of Sciences Biology journal could offer hope to thousands of brain-damaged patients who face the daily agony of being unable to communicate with their loved ones.
Source:
Mind reading device could become reality
