Scientists using MRI to predict intentions, Big Brother seen nodding approvingly

If you'd relegated the Thought Police from that Cliff Notes version of 1984 you read in high school to science fiction, think again, friend: scientists in Germany have just made the first major progress in being able to predict a person's intentions before they act them out. As you might expect, the team from Berlin's Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience are using modern technology's best tool for observing brain activity -- Magnetic Resonance Imaging -- to determine subjects' likely course of action when presented with a set of numbers that they may either add or subract. Now before you start freaking out that the cops are about to bust down your door all Minority Report-style for that nasty crime you're planning on committing, bear in mind that this research is still in its infancy, and that the reported success rate of 70% is still closer to chance than rigorous scientific truth. In other words, when researchers presented test subjects with a set of digits, they were only able to interpret the cortical activity correctly seven out of ten times -- the other three times, people zigged (added) when they were expected to zag (subtract). So, what does this all this mean for you paranoid conspiracy theorists out there? Not much -- for now. First of all, it's going to take as long as a decade to codify the cortical patterns associated with each one of the almost infinite variations on human thought. Secondly, MRI machines aren't exactly the most portable or inobtrusive instruments around, meaning that some pretty tech new devices are going to have to be invented if Big Brother really wants to monitor our thoughts covertly. In other words, tuck that tin foil cap back in the drawer and continue about your daily business.

[David Cohen @ Mar 6th 2007 6:07AM]

Where is that picture from?

[Mike @ Mar 6th 2007 6:21AM]

it's from A Clockwork Orange.

[TH @ Mar 6th 2007 6:39AM]

That pic is from Clockwork Orange...

Quite funny story this, and I guess there's nothing wrong in a tongue-in-cheek entry about brain imaging, but it does miss most of the actual point of the research and it's value for neuropsychology.

Psychological experiments have always had the problem that people's intentions and their behavioural responses are not always the same, for many reasons (actions might be difficult motorically, we make mistakes etc.), and this has caused methodological problems. On the other hand, intentions and sharing them with others is an essential feature and might even be the thing that we humans do but other species don't, at least to the same extent. Getting better at identifying the brain activity patterns associated with different intentions opens the door for very interesting research on for instance perceived and real intentions and the expected and unexpected actions in a social context, which in turn helps us understand how our cognition works in general.

And yes, as long as fMRI scanners cost millions and weigh tons there is really no danger that anyone would install one on you without you noticing. :)

[Cadilicsp123 @ Mar 6th 2007 9:50PM]

What if Gold PSP Come? Here it is:

A New Treat To Apple TV: PlayStation 3 movie downloads

"Now Sony has indicated the introduction of a movie download service for the PlayStation 3, to match the Xbox 360, the console war has moved into new territory - territory Apple has already marked as its own"

More: www.mobile-video-converter.com/news

[carrie @ Mar 6th 2007 8:59AM]

Your comments are very interesting. As a layperson, I would like to ask: once understood, what would it involve to change a person's future reaction/choice so as to bring about a 'desired' response?

[NHAnimator @ Mar 6th 2007 7:58AM]

EVERYTHING has an infancy.

I pray for my great-great grandchildren.

[FrankTheCrank @ Mar 6th 2007 8:32AM]

Hey...is that Linderman?

hmmmmmm...the plot thickens.

[Rick @ Mar 6th 2007 8:42AM]

doubleplus good

[craig @ Mar 6th 2007 9:45AM]

Cue Beethoven's 9th

[michael @ Mar 6th 2007 10:34AM]

Don't you see?! This research is simply a decoy designed to hide the fact that they already have brain-scanning technology! They just don't want us to know about it! They know what you think, what you eat for breakfast, what you think about eating for breakfast before you actually pick something, what y- GAH! /thunk

[TH @ Mar 6th 2007 11:46AM]

To Carrie: there are better and faster ways to influence people's responses and behaviours than going through the messy and complicated path of reading brain activity and then somehow modifying it. Advertising is a good every day example and hypnosis and suggestion perhaps extreme examples.

Brain scanning is only capable of observing brain activity, not influence it in any way, none of the brain imaging technologies we have (PET, fMRI, EEG) is invasive, and all of these have been around for long time and thus I couldn't really see the point of the Big Brother -references here. Despite of what the news says (or what the research groups claim themselves in order to make news and get grants), they are only limitedly able to "read minds", as those studies often have two or three very limited options and the researcher then is guessing which one you are doing (imagining playing tennis versus moving around in your house, for example), but have no clue about what shots you imagined or what the house you imagined exploring looked like.

Oh, magnetic fields can actually be used to stimulate or knock off regions of brain, and if you do that for your motor cortex (on the top of your head) your fingers and face might twitch without you being able to control them, or when you knock off parts of your prefrontal cortex your decision-making might be temporarily impaired and you might take bigger chances in a card game, for instance. This technology is called TMS, or transcranial magnetic stimulation, and is commonly in use in brain research as well, but is a relatively "blunt instrument" with limited usability and thus not as "hot" as fMRI.

[Josh @ Mar 6th 2007 11:49AM]

Sorry to be picky, but the title of the post is a little misleading. The scientists aren't predicting intentions, they're trying to predict actions, on the basis of their observations of intentions already formed. They're not figuring out what you're going to do before you decide to do it, they're figuring out what you've already decided to do, before you actually act upon your intention.

Now, if causal determinism is true (huge "IF"), then stepping back before the decision/intention formation would be possible, and even if it's not true, one could still conceivably predict with some accuracy what people are inclined to do in certain situations (say, all the reasons they're aware of favor one choice).

Ironically (and not seriously), advances and wide deployment of such technology would make weakness of will a valuable quality for evildoers. They simply form the intention to act in a morally acceptable way, and then fail to follow through on their observable intention, catching the authorities by surprise.

[Camperton @ Mar 6th 2007 1:17PM]

The combination of that headline, that photo and my current state of sleep deprivation made me giggle like a psychiatric out patient.

[Knowledge is power @ Mar 6th 2007 7:40PM]

So you wanna modify people's behavior? No problem! Just get a major TV network on your side and off you go. Then you can brainwash people and scare them into modifying their behavior and thought process. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's already happening. Fox, CNN the New York Times to name a few are all great outlets for the government and power craving individuals to assert their ideas and agenda over people. The war on terror and all the fear mongering that followed is a great example of that. By the way, does anyone remember how Bush Sr. started the "war on drugs" campaign back in the late 80s so as to increase his approval ratings and distract people from domestic issues (unemployment...etc.). The absurd is that drug consumption increased during those years AND more drugs were making it into the United States that ever before.