Name: This computer is learning to read your mind
Uploaded: 2018-06-11T16:19:28Z
Duration: 5 min 38 s
Description: Modern technology lets neuroscientists peer into the human brain, but can it also read minds? Armed with the device known as an electroencephalogram, or EEG, and some computing wizardry, our intrepid neuroscientists attempt to peer into a subject's thoughts.

Greg Gage: This computer is learning to read your mind 

This computer is learning to read your mind 

Modern technology lets neuroscientists peer into the human brain, but can it also read minds? Armed with the device known as an electroencephalogram, or EEG, and some computing wizardry, our intrepid neuroscientists attempt to peer into a subject's thoughts.


Scientists can record electrical signals from the brain using EEGs and attempt to decode what a person is seeing. By showing hundreds of pictures and capturing brain activity, researchers found a unique neural spike when viewing faces, called the N170. Machine learning helped spot patterns in noisy data, but real success required timing tricks and narrowing the choices. Mind reading by EEG is possible in simple cases, but current technology has significant constraints.