Reading Minds with Magnetic Resonance Imaging

So what would you do if you could identify a criminal and arrest him or her BEFORE they committed a crime? Sounds pretty crazy -- like something out of a sci-fi film. Thing is, a scenario like this might not be too farfetched.

According to an article in the French daily Le Monde (www.lemonde.fr), Professor John-Dylan Haynes who is the head of cranial research at the Max Planck Institute (www.mpg.de) says new technology in cranial photography may make it possible to distinguish if someone has the temperament to be a terrorist, but also for other career traits that may lead an individual into the world of at, politics or industry.

Haynes bases his theory on a recent study he conducted on volunteers that dealt with problem solving and magnetic resonance photography. Researchers found people's brains showed a particular pattern based not only on what they are thinking but on what thy are watching. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans showed individuals' brains displayed particular patterns for each object they were shown.

In a study published in Nature Neuroscience (www.nature.com), researchers used functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) techniques to map the brain activity of volunteers. Showing the recipients two sets of images, of lines running in different directions, they were able to identify differences in the visual cortex region of the brain according to which image was being shown. Although weak, the pattern in neuron activity was enough to predict which image a person was viewing to an accuracy of around 80 percent.

A second experiment threw up more startling results. Having identified this phenomenon, researchers showed recipients the images again but very quickly, as a kind subliminal message. They found that although the viewers could not say which they had seen, their brain activity showed that they had in fact registered the correct image. In effect, researchers could tell more about their subject's experience that the subject themselves.