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Scientists scanning the human brain can now tell whom a person is thinking of, the first time researchers have been able to identify what people are imagining from imaging technologies.
Work to visualize thought is starting to pile up successes. Recently, scientists have used brain scans to decode imagery directly from the brain, such as what number people have just seen and what memory a person is recalling. They can now even reconstruct videos of what a person has watched based on their brain activity alone. Cornell University cognitive neuroscientist Nathan Spreng and his colleagues wanted to carry this research one step further by seeing if they could deduce the mental pictures of people that subjects conjure up in their heads.
“We are trying to understand the physical mechanisms that allow us to have an inner world, and a part of that is how we represent other people in our mind,” Spreng says.
Imagining others
His team first gave 19 volunteers descriptions of four imaginary people they were told were real. Each of these characters had different personalities. Half the personalities were agreeable, described as liking to cooperate with others; the other half were less agreeable, depicted as cold and aloof or having similar traits. In addition, half these characters were described as outgoing and sociable extroverts, while the others were less so, depicted as sometimes shy and inhibited. The scientists matched the genders of these characters to each volunteer and gave them popular names like Mike, Chris, Dave or Nick, or Ashley, Sarah, Nicole or Jenny.
The researchers then scanned volunteers’ brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow. During the scans, the investigators asked participants to predict how each of the four fictitious people might behave in a variety of scenarios — for instance, if they were at a bar and someone else spilled a drink, or if they saw a homeless veteran asking for change.
“Humans are social creatures, and the social world is a complex place,” Spreng says. “A key aspect to navigating the social world is how we represent others.”
The scientists discovered that each of the four personalities were linked to unique patterns of brain activity in a part of the organ known as the medial prefrontal cortex. In other words, researchers could tell whom their volunteers were thinking about.
“This is the first study to show that we can decode what people are imagining,” Spreng says.
Unlocking brain’s personality models
The medial prefrontal cortex helps people deduce traits about others. These findings suggest this region is also where personality models are encoded, assembled and updated, helping people understand and predict the likely behavior of others and prepare for the future.
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10 Comments
Add CommentThis is an interesting study, and as nice as it is to see cognitive neuroscience in the headlines, the opening sentence of this piece is simply wrong. This is not the first neuroimaging study to "identify what people are imagining from imaging technologies".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMoreover, the quote from Nathan Spreng is overly hyped too (so much so that I can hardly believe he said it): “This is the first study to show that we can decode what people are imagining"
Not so.
There are many similar studies on imagery. This one by Mark Stokes was published four years ago and shows how the visual cortex represents imagined stimuli:
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/29/5/1565.full.pdf
(and see the reference list of that paper for related studies)
This sci am piece serves as a reminder for journalists to consult independent sources for comment before publishing incorrect information.
I don't think it ever hurts to proofread for grammar:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"The scientists discovered that each of the four personalities were linked ..." should be corrected. The singular word "each" is the subject of "were," and the standard wording would be "each ... was ...," not "each ... were ...."
Thank you! I was just thinking this myself. I do fMRI research on mental imagery and I was pretty shocked to see this article headline. I know it sounds sexy, but like you said, it's simply incorrect. Neat study though.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn agreement w/ C. Chambers, yeah headline is hype; results are much more modest than headline suggests: investigators were able to distinguish in which of 4 quadrants, w/in a simple 2 x 2 matrix, the subjects' brain responses fell. Only 2 matrices are simpler: a 1 x 2 and a 1 x 3; i.e. a 2 x 2 is the simplest that includes > 1 variable. Hardly anything in anyone's concrete (i.e. perceptual, nonabstract) experience is this simple. A step, but a small one.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreat news for dictators around the world!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI must admit I don't know much about the brain except I have one,but I find these articles very interesting.I have always been interested in people and the way they think and interact with others.Being an introvert,I was always an observer.I used to think there was something wrong with me because I could not fit in with any particular group,preferring to be a loner.My doctor said there was nothing wrong with enjoying my own company,he didn't seem concerned.In 1986 i had an extraordinary experience which nobody as yet has been able to explain.I had what I call a "vision."A ball of light came in through my bedroom window,traveled around the ceiling until it stopped in front of me and grew larger,then a form materialized within the light and a male voice spoke saying,"do you want to come with us now?"The voice was so gentle and calm,it was like it could draw me into the light.I wanted to say yes,I wanted so much to go but I turned my head to the left and thought of my two teen aged daughters without a mother.I turned my head back and said no.The light moved away and was instantly gone.I was wide awake watching this,had been in bed only 15min.Before the light came into the room it lit up the whole window,I thought it was a car entering my driveway,but didn't hear the wheels on the gravel and thought this was odd.I guess this strange incident must have something to do with electricity but it has bothered me all these years.It seems to have become an obsession with me to find out what might have occured!I have been assured that I'm perfectly sane,for awhile I wondered,would anyone blame me!I have searched and searched for answers and no one has an explanation for me.If any one reads this and has any input please help me in my quest,I would be very grateful.Thanks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this6. tiny bird43 09:26 PM 3/20/13
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease consider this definition of hypnagogic.
... : of, relating to, or occurring in the period of drowsiness immediately preceding sleep <hypnagogic hallucinations> ....
A dream state entered into while in a hypnagogic condition is mixed into the perception of reality because the subject is still awake to some degree. The images that scroll through consciousness are seen to be unusually real because the intensity and vividness of dreaming concentrates the focus of the still wakeful parts of the brain.
In this case a part of your mind/body organism is calling for you to drift further into sleep while another part is looking for reasons to stay alert. As always the brain looks for ways to manifest these conflicting internal states by sending what seem like appropriate images to your consciousness.
As described previously such images seem more real than reality. The ones that seem invested with substance are the ones that we remember. True, there may have been some environmental stimuli such as flashing headlights of ball lightning that are incorporated into your experience but they are just the stage setting.
I'm not dismissing your experience. Quite the opposite. You were presented with a choice between the joys and burdens of morality, family and community on the one hand as compared to the limitless possibility inherent in being a free soul. The fundamental truth of choosing being awake and focused or engaging in a free ranging dream state. We are confronted throughout our daily lives with picking up one thing when that requires putting down something else.
Your experience seems like a beautiful way to express the struggle of life. .
The quest for answers that seem so elusive that you say you are on is really for something that is in you.
This is in reply to "northernguy",thanks for being interested enough to reply to my plea for help!I do think that you are probably right as I have really been searching all of my life to find a place to feel comfortable and to be accepted as I am without conditions.There are so many conditions placed on people that we constantly feel obligated to someone,not much freedom in that!For that reason I try not to place expectations on anyone I know.I really don't mean to be critical,but when conversing with some,I find the intellect doesn't go much farther than,"It's a nice day"or"What can we eat for supper?"Such "shallowness"makes me want to retreat,and isolate.Does that make me "anti-social"I do like to write and have always written poetry and some prose,mostly based on my own feelings of course.Nothing published as of yet.Thank you again for your enlightenment,I do appreciate your input.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSomeone such as your self might want to look into Gestalt training.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGestalt can be translated as _the whole_ or _the pattern_. They spend a lot of time looking at separating the figure from field, the foreground from the background, the subject from the object.
There is a popular saying among adherents which goes something like:
I do my thing and you do your thing
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are You and I am I.
And if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.
If not, it can't be helped.
....
The basic premise of Gestalt training is that we are what we are. What we can do is look at the choices we make, what's good about them and what's bad and whether we really want to change those choices.
It very much deals with the reality that we are in now. The choices we make in regard to our personal history can be changed but not that history or our response to it. That is just who we are.
In this approach, better understanding of ourselves is pointless without looking at the choices associated with our life script.
If that seems interesting to you check out Fritz Perls and Gestalt on the internet. Since it's all about perception you will find quite a lot of material relating Gestalt to art which is where the movement started.
Reply to "northernguy"Thanks so much for the information,I will look on the internet for Fritz Perls and Gestalt!Thanks again for your interest you have helped me just by showing the interest.There are so many who won't take the time.
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