As soon as a volunteer thinks of a word, researchers detect brain activity in Broca’s area (yellow arrow), a part of the brain involved in language. (Credit: Stefan Posse, University of New Mexico)
New techniques to capture single thought processes open up new possibilities for neuro-imaging.
One of the long-term goals of the field of neuro-imaging is to understand what a person is thinking just by looking at the pattern of his or her brain activity--in essence, reading the mind. While that feat is still a long way off, scientists at the University of New Mexico have taken an important step by refining neuro-imaging techniques to the point where they can reliably detect a single thought forming in an individual's brain.
The technique could be used to improve clinical applications of neuro-imaging, such as patient diagnosis, or to study cognitive processes that are fleeting or irreproducible, such as learning a new skill. "This could open up a whole new dimension of how fMRI could be used," says Peter Bandettini, director of the fMRI core facility at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures the amount of blood flow to different parts of the brain, thereby indicating which brain areas are most active. Imaging the brain while someone performs mental tasks, such as remembering words or doing math, gives insight into the parts of the brain crucial for these cognitive processes.
But brain activity is very "noisy," meaning scientists must distinguish the relevant neural signals from background activity, which might come from a subject's breathing, moving, or even daydreaming. To detect brain activity associated with a specific task, then, most fMRI studies average brain scans from repeated tests in dozens of people.
Stefan Posse and colleagues at the University of New Mexico are developing new ways to collect and analyze fMRI data that allow them to detect brain activity from a single thought. They've created their highly sensitive imaging methods by taking more pictures in a shorter amount of time and by developing new algorithms to integrate those images and to reduce background noise.
As described in a paper last month in the journal Neuroimage, Posse's team asked eight volunteers lying in a scanner to think of a word beginning with a letter flashed on a screen above their faces. They then recorded the activity in Broca's area, a part of the brain involved in the generation of language.
The researchers found they could detect activity in this region after a single trial about as reliably as in previous studies that averaged results over multiple trials. "We can actually see it on the scanner in real time," says Posse.
Experts say the findings are promising, although they still need to be confirmed. "It's important to try this in other brain regions and with other tasks to see where it works," says Christopher deCharms, founder of Omneuron, a brain imaging startup in Menlo Park, CA.
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The image seems to show Broca's area on the right.
Isn't it on the left side in most people?
d.pope
the image may be using radiological convention, which flips left/right.
I am artist-blacksmith for 30 years. Drawing the figure with ink is a refreshing balance to forge work. I make 40 plus drawing per week at the class i attend. My approach has evolved; a drawing is made during a single concentrated thought; I understand that concentrating in this way cannot go beyond 15 seconds. Each drawing is produced within 8-12 seconds.
Is there an accurate measurement for the duration of single thought?
I am proposing this single thought approach for generating a "statement" as a grant project for next year and as an exhibit for an art museum in my community.
james see jamesgarvey.net
Exercise to enhance my single thought capacity
OFPC Concentration James Garvey 2008
Exhibit Space: 15’ X 25’ with ventilation for an open fireplace
Wing Surface Desk 29” high X62’ wide X 33’ deep Forged steel ½” plate and tapered 2” round bar.
Swathe Chair 42” high back X 24” deep X 26” wide. Seat has built in two neoprene rollers to move forward and back. The seat is 3/16” forged steel; 1” thick felt lines the inside. The armature is 83” high 32” wide 1 ¼” round hollow core forging (a slot is cut along the top of the boom to accommodate wiring).
Video Screen Attachment
Lariat Felt Stand 10” X10” X 21 “ tall made of forged steel and 1” thick squares of #5 wool felt.
Swivel Sculpture 7” X 4” X 2 ½” forged and plated steel
Three Stakes Hibachi forged steel with 3’ diameter surface X 29” tall with ceramic lining inside the fire pit. Legs are forged tapers 2” round bar.
Lariat Curtain Stand is 42 “ diameter 58” high with black carbon fiber fabric curtain. Forged steel 1 ½’ round bar and ¼’ round rings with pull handles.
Exercise:
Object for Personal Ceremony to aid my CONCENTRATION. I made my desk; it is an idiosyncratic process that gradually wears off. My concentration is in short spurts; a ‘single thought’ is not longer than 12 seconds. I get glimpses of my self during concentration with a monitor of me working; it has a delay of fifteen seconds. I can measure my concentration by looking at flames. I open the curtain and study the flames rhythm for six seconds and then block the view. I remove the block, concentrate for seven seconds, and block the view. I continue eight seconds, nine seconds, ten seconds… I learn to realize the single thought that is active in me.
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RedSevenOne
18 Comments
MEMO
Reminder: neuro-imaging is just that, an Image, Period. The OED defines such as [Noun] 1. An artificial imitation or representation of the external form of any object, esp. of a person, or of the bust of a person.’ and/or [Verb] ‘ 1. trans. To make an image of; to represent or set forth by an image (in sculpture, painting, etc.); to figure, portray, delineate.
Let us not forget that with all the ‘Promise’ that fMRI brings to the world of analysis, in the end it produces only impression, guides for diagnosis, and not Fact, particularly not Fact as defined by Evidence in a Court of Law.
Just as the DSM has been disallowed in Learned Jurisprudence, so too will inevitably be fMRI, if the protagonists are bold enough to try.
Reply
vanopelli
3 Comments
Re: MEMO
RedSevenOne: Are you a lawyer? It just looks like you're starting an argument over an article that is merely suggesting future possibilities for fmri, and it sounds like you've decided "there's no legal application, so forget about it." It's just an image so what's all the fuss? Ya know, instruments on fighter planes present mere images to the pilot . . . how much more difficult flying would be without the mere images that correlate to altitude, aircraft speed, control surface position. Now we have an emerging technology for images that correlate to electrical properties for brain functioning. Just an image? Ok lets not waste our time and money on mere images. Wow, I'm looking at images on my computer. What a waste of time. Rembrandt, Dali, Michealangelo, such useless people who wasted their lives on images. Leonardo Da Vinci? Should have had a real job, like Lawyer! We wouldn't remember him, but his life might have been better spent protecting someone's property. Sorry, when it comes to positive gains in science, I'm sick of naysayers!
IMAGination, full speed ahead. I'm sure that someday, perhaps not in court, this technology will be HUGE for new, beneficial medical applications.
Reply
aurizon
4 Comments
Re: MEMO
Might make a good way to determine degree of response in coma victims(compared to current scans, which work, but seem inferior to this method)
It would also make a whiz bang lie detector or interrogation tool.
No torture needed, just ask 20 questions and home in on the answers
Reply
starrdusk
1 Comment
Re: MEMO
Well said, Vanopelli.
and Right On
Reply
enantiomer2000
66 Comments
Re: MEMO
Your right, it is just impressions, but there are more like three periods... this is a prequel to the epic of the age of consciousness. An age in which we can read every thought in a persons brain with absolute clarity, where BMI becomes a possibility. An age in which mankind soars above the clouds of his own intelligence. It will come.
I do agree you that thought pattern recognition shouldn't be permissable in a court of law, just as the polygragh isn't.
Reply
catoosaflash
10 Comments
Re: MEMO
What is a BMI?
Reply
deirdrebeth
25 Comments
Re: MEMO
I believe s/he's referring to Bio Molecular Imaging...or possibily to where we'd hope Bio Molecular Imaging could take us.
Reply
catoosaflash
10 Comments
Re: MEMO
What is a DSM?
Reply