Scientists have learned to "read" whole sentences from a person’s thoughts

Reading thoughts is one of the most popular topics in science fiction. At different times, all kinds of telepaths, hypnotists and magicians tried to do this. Now is the time for scientists. And they obviously do better! For example, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University learned to “read out” complex sentences in a person’s mind, such as “The Witness shouted during the trial.”

Universal language

How do they do it?

Scientists scan the brain while thinking, creating a kind of "dictionary" of brain reactions to various thoughts. Then, according to this dictionary, they try to understand the thoughts of man at the present moment. Recent studies based on the innovative use of machine learning algorithms show that the blocks that make up complex thoughts are formed by various subsystems of the brain and are not based on words.

In other words, the neural measurements of the brain allow us to speak of a universal language for all people, regardless of nationality: the brain works the same for everyone.

Scientists note that one of the most amazing properties of the brain is to combine individual concepts with complex thoughts, to think not about "bananas", but that "I like to eat bananas in the evenings with my friends." In-depth studies of this issue brought them closer to understanding what kind of "bricks" are thought.

What the brain "screams" about

In the study, they tried to “read” the brain messages using the fMRI scanner, which underwent a certain machine training and learned many algorithms. To this end, the researchers collected 240 sentences from several concepts, such as, for example, "The witness shouted during the trial." All of these proposals consisted of 42 "bricks" for the brain, which took into account concepts such as a person, settings, size, social interaction and physical actions.

All these concepts are formed in different parts of the brain, so they can be considered quite accurately without unnecessary interference. Researchers gave seven subjects read the sentences, fixing the patterns by which the brain is activated in each case. When they read 239 sentences, the 240th scanner was able to “assemble” on its own only on the basis of brain data: it did it correctly in 87% of cases.

The method of “collecting thoughts in pieces” opens up new horizons for scientists. Now, when scanning, signals from brain events occurring almost simultaneously will not be blurred. For example, when reading two adjacent words in a sentence. In the future, researchers intend to learn how to decipher common topics that people think about at some point, such as geology or skateboarding. And the result of their work will be a brain map of all types of knowledge.