Mind reading
The show 60 minutes had a provocative piece on the use of fMRI to read thoughts.
fMRI has helped us understand what parts of the brain are involved in what, in a dynamic manner. It is also a powerful tool to understand a number of neurological problems. The technique, as any other, has its limitations.
The show was misleading. What was done was to show 10 pictures of different objects to test subjects, and record their brain activity. Subsequent activity was then matched to the training runs. Does anyone remember the Palm Pilot handwriting recognition? It was pretty crude. So are the current fMRI capabilities in terms of reading your mind. Brain activity is simply too complex.
The thought that some of these techniques could be used in a courtroom is frightening.
When a Carnegie Melon professor states that we are three to five years away from reading complex thoughts, I wonder. The brain is so complex. How many years will it take, or can it ever be done?
The show also mentions the emerging field of neural marketing. What we are talking about here is using the same techniques to evaluate people’s preferences. This is a simpler concept. It makes more sense. We can get a fair idea of which areas of the brain light up when a test subject experiences pleasure, fear, etc. Just as in the thought recognition experiments described above, we have to be careful to recognize what is and what is not possible. This is, unless you believe a market research firm would never make extravagant claims. The consequences of trusting unreliable data may be less dramatic: you won’t go to jail because of an unreliable test. You will lose money.
It seems there should be a place for someone who understands neuroscience to advise the customers of neural marketing firms, and help them spend their budgets wisely. Do you know anyone who could use such help?