Brain implants have been used to “read the minds” of monkeys to predict what they are about to do and even how enthusiastic they are about doing it, California Institute of Technology researchers have found.

By decoding the signals from 96 electrodes in a region of the brain just above the ear, called the parietal cortex, the researchers were able to predict 67 per cent of the time where in their visual field trained monkeys were planning to reach, or about 88 per cent when the monkeys expected a reward.

By applying this approach to language areas of the brain, it may be possible to decode the words someone was thinking.