Researchers in the UK have found a way to read your mind. The University College London team led by Eleanor Maguire, who published their study in Current Biology, showed 10 people three very short films each, and then scanned their brains using fMRI while the participants recalled the films. Then the researchers ran the data through an algorithm designed to identify brain pattern associated with memories of each of the films. They found that the patterns could be used to accurately predict which film each person was thinking of when they were scanned. According to the researchers, the results imply that the neuronal traces of episodic memories are stable and, so, predictable.
The Daily Scan is now slowly reaching for its tinfoil hat.