Tag: neuroscientists
Neuroscientists decoded a Pink Floyd song using people’s brain activity
In what seems like something out of a sci-fi movie, scientists have plucked the famous Pink Floyd song “Another Brick in the Wall” from individuals’ brains.
Using electrodes, computer models and brain scans, researchers previously have been able to decode and reconstruct individual words and entire thoughts from people’s brain activity (SN: 11/15/22; SN: 5/1/23).
The new study, published August 15 in PLOS Biology, adds music into the mix, showing that songs can also be decoded from
Neuroscientists decoded people’s thoughts using brain scans
Like Dumbledore’s wand, a scan can pull long strings of stories straight out of a person’s brain — but only if that person cooperates.
This “mind-reading” feat, described May 1 in Nature Neuroscience, has a long way to go before it can be used outside of sophisticated laboratories. But the result could ultimately lead to seamless devices that help people who can’t talk or otherwise communicate easily. The research also raises privacy concerns about unwelcome neural eavesdropping (SN:
The Appeal of Scientific Heroism
In 2008, the journalist Jonah Lehrer paid a visit to a lab in Lausanne, Switzerland, to profile Henry Markram, a world-renowned neuroscientist. Markram, a South African, had trained at a series of élite institutions in Israel, the United States, and Germany; in the nineties, he published foundational papers on neural connections and synaptic activity. Markram’s work in the laboratory, which involved piercing neural membranes with what Lehrer described as an “invisibly sharp glass pipette,” was known for its painstaking precision.