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Future Actions Predicted From Brain Activity
An anonymous reader writes "Bringing the real world into the brain scanner, researchers say they can now determine the action a person was planning, mere moments before that action is actually executed. In the study at the University of Western Ontario, human subjects had their brain activity scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they performed one of three hand movements. By using the signals from many brain regions, the researchers could predict, better than chance, which of the actions the volunteer was merely intending to do, seconds later."
I knew you were going to post that...
Does anyone else interpret "mere" moments as implying that a shorter amount of time is better? Wouldn't being able to detect an action *longer* before it actually happens be better?
Once again art wins the contest by default, when real life plagiarizes it (Minority Report).
Anyone have a link to the actual study, so we can find out what "better than chance" really means? 40% accuracy? 35% accuracy? Either could be significantly better than chance (33%), but neither shows much promise on the "I'm going to read your mind" front.
Unrelated, but why did slashdot decide to change the UI again? It's even less responsive now than their last change!
If only they could have used this technology to predict them creating this technology.
This has been reported before, I forget what the research was, but "predicting mistakes before you make them" found that the decisions you make before proceeding against your better judgement (omg they found the little angel and devil shoulder imps via the MRI..) This is just the same research again, but focused on movements.
The logical outcome of this research is figuring out how to tap it for cybernetics.
Hilter used to claim this as well. BS Technology.
A little elaborate of a game setup, isn't it?
By monitoring which parts of the brain are active they can use that knowledge to predict hand gestures. Why, it is almost like these people are making a conscious choice before moving their hands.
This is far from predicting future actions. I, myself, know what I am going to do moments before I do it. That is because I can think faster than I can act.
It can only predict my actions before I do them, not before I think them. This isn't the start of pre-crime, because that would require planning out your actions before you do. This is not that, and it's not even a step towards that.
I have to admit I didn't know. I thought he was going to post about "thought crime."
"Do you know what that means? This damn thing doesn't work!"
Those thoughts about my cousin Elena, those were *just thoughts*!
Since I don't ever plan anything, this could actually make my decisions easier by telling me what I'm going to wind up doing AHEAD of time - then I can just do THAT. I've found that for binary actions, a coin is able to predict what I'm going to do 100% of the time, but when I'm confronted with more than two options, I am paralyzed with indecision!
I'm sure I saw in some BBC program (Horizon?) a claim that it was possible to use this technology to predict a person's action not only before they did it but before they even became *aware* of the decision they were going to make
Either bullshit or quite unsettling.
They predicted one of three hand movements and it wasn't Rock, Paper, Scissors? They missed a huge opportunity to upend the RPS wagering market
Yours is the minority report!
I remember this being posted a long time ago. I don't know if it was on here or not, but I definitely remember it. In fact, I remember something that wasn't mentioned here: that the researchers couldn't account for last-minute mind changing.
If you have no brain activity, you are unlikely to take actions in the future.
Will never be the same.
Bunch of lunetic scientists on the loose. What benefit does this give the human race? Oh I forgot the pre crime god wanna be's will soon be in power
I *am* a neuro-scientist, though I focus more on the visual areas at the back of the brain, rather than the planning area at the front.
This stuff is kinda shiny, but nothing all that new. We can already pick up the brain activity relating to motor actions, both with fMRI and the decidedly more portable eeg. Heck, we can pull this classification trick on the visual system and determine what people are seeing.
The real story here is not being able to determine what people are doing - or even that we can do so before they do it - but rather that we can identify which regions of the brain are involved in planning tasks.
Yes, this allows us neuroscientists to then go on to do more interesting things like design systems to control robotic limbs, but it also enables us to ask interesting questions such as how does experience/learning effect the behaviour of these bits of brain.
One end point of this (amongst others) is to figure out how the brain works enough that we can duplicate useful techniques for use with artificial intelligence.
Reminds me of Neuroscience and Free Will [Youtube]
Also Neuropath [Amazon] is a fun book about this taken to the extreme.
I saw something about a study where subjects were wired up, then asked to press a button at a random moment.
It turned out the machine could detect a build up of activity prior to the button push before the subject was consciously aware that they had decided to push the button.
and all this while I didn't realize that my plans and contemplations were hidden from by brain.
That these signals exist in our brain is no marvel. It is obvious. The news coverage focuses on the wrong aspect of the research. The question is how well their technique works. A device to control a prosthesis better have very high accuracy.
Being able to predict a human’s desired movements using brain signals takes us one step closer to using those signals to control prosthetic limbs
An arm has six degrees of freedom. Better than chance only means that it has to be correct more than 17% of the time. What does it do the other 80% of the time? "Pardon me, I meant to shake your hand not grab your breast."
It's like looking at a house being constructed and then declare: I predict there will be a new house here.
.....enforce it. I mean liked who doesn't yet know politicians will lie? And lawyers... well them lawyer jokes are not just pulled out of the air....
So far, I haven't seen anyone mention one very useful application of said technology: Advanced input devices. Think about it. If a computer could predict your actions even a second before you do them, then the system can use this data to keep pace with your actions. Who needs a tablet interface, when one can draw on a piece of paper, and the desktop reacts accordingly? What's the point of a touchpad or mouse when one can just move a finger or two over the tabletop next to the computer? Any monitor can be used as a touchscreen, as there is no need for a sensitive layer.
The Penguin Producer
Pre-Crime begins...
Good. Prevention is better than cure.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
What an article Can't wait until they actually start predicting when people are going to commit a crime before someone gets robbed or killed. http://www.bbcleaningservice.com/ [bbcleaningservice.com] [bbcleaningservice.com]
So, what they invented here is an extremely expensive way to cheat at Rock, Paper, Scissors?
Words, words, words
ok, let's go with your plan. only safe bet is to eliminate the human species. let's get started, you first. wait, crap that was me. dammit!
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT