Researchers develop ‘brain-reading’ methods

July 28, 2009 | Source: PhysOrg.com

A highly accurate way to uncover a person’s mental state and what sort of information is being processed — before it reaches awareness — using functional MRI has been developed by Rutgers and UCLA scientists.

The research also suggests that a more comprehensive approach is needed for mapping brain activity and that the widely held belief that localized areas of the brain are responsible for specific mental functions is misleading and incorrect.

The findings also represent a potential first, early step in developing a means for identifying higher-level mental functions, such as “lying” or abstract reasoning. They potentially also could pave the way for earlier diagnosis and better treatment of mental disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia, by offering a means for identifying very subtle abnormalities in brain activity and synchrony.