At the University of Toronto, researchers have developed a technique that uses infrared light brain imaging to decode a mind's decision, choice or preference.
In a study published in The Journal of Neural Engineering last February, scientists demonstrated the ability to decode a person's decision with an 80% accuracy, just by measuring the intensity of near-infrared light absorbed in certain regions of brain tissue.
The research subject(s) would wear a 'fiber-optic headband that emits light into the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, and when asked a question the computer would decipher the mental decision that the brain was making.' from the original press release Medical News Today
In the neuroscience of 'mind-reading' is the detection of the brain's mental states. Therefore, similarly to the traditional lie detector (polygraph) tests, some proponents of neuroscience may soon be used in the legal system which may also produce profound changes in civil liberties and in procedural law as we know it.
Researchers believe that the brain is too complex to ever allow decoding of a person's random thoughts and recommend an interdisciplinary approach by 'urging caution to prevent the misuse of neuroscience for guilt detection within courts, legislatures, prisons, and other parts of the legal system'. Source: ScienceDaily January 24, 2010 Mind-Reading, Brain-Fingerprinting and the Law
Studies showed that brain-computer interfaces designed to read thoughts were very complex therefore would require extensive training and computer programming to determine an acceptable accuracy rate for a guilty verdict on that basis. Training in understanding the key issues surrounding this state-of-the-art cognitive research include topics as diverse as computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, cognitive biology and psychology.
Some of these progressive training methods may involve parallel comparisons in measuring brain electrical potentials that are already used in forensic techniques, to other technologies like EEGs (electroencephalography); whereby brain activity is measured through small electrodes placed on the scalp. By combining several cognitive sciences and creating the proper questionnaire to predict preference, mind-reading becomes possible; however, the challenge would be in determining the difference from brain memory and the mind's 'intent' to do something which can mistakenly be interpreted as a memory.
In hopes of pursing the complex mind-reading studies, Toronto researchers at Canada's largest children's rehabilitation hospital hope to pursue the mind-reading technology for rehabilitation purposes with the goal of ultimately opening the world of choice to patients who cannot speak or move. A subject's brain would have to be fully functional and not in a coma or with brain damage since the neurotechnology works when the brain is fully active and based on the oxygen in the blood. The increase of oxygen in the blood is dependent on the subject's concentration as the neurotransmitter fiber-optic headband absorbs more or less light in order to function properly.
However, by focusing on positive uses for the mind-reading neuroscience technology, the computer science aspect of the research can advance and be designed or programmed to understand subtle body processes like breathing patterns, heart rate and brain activity with the purpose of becoming the interface or 'conduit of expression' for a wide range of individuals with communication disabilities.
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