IS MIND READING POSSIBLE?

Using Neuroscience to Uncover Thoughts

-  Ben Silver

We've all been in situations where we wish we could read someone's mind: Does that person like me? What is the answer to my teacher's question? Is my parent in the right mood to buy me a new video game? Recent developments in neuroscience suggest that the ability to read someone's mind might not always be a sci-fi fantasy.

Imagine the following: A man is on trial for committing a crime-say, stealing from a jewelry store. In the courtroom, he claims that he's never even been to the store in question, so he couldn't have possibly done what he is accused of. But during the trial, he undergoes a brain scan. During the scan, he looks at images of his childhood home (a place he recognizes). He sees a restaurant in a country that he's never been to (a place he doesn't recognize). And he views the jewelry store where the crime occurred (a place he claims he doesn't recognize).

The brain scan shows that his brain activity when viewing the jewelry store looks much more similar to his brain when viewing his childhood home than the restaurant. This shows that he recognizes the jewelry store, which suggests that he is lying about never having been there. The lawyer uses the brain scan as evidence in the trial, and the man is convicted of stealing from the jewelry store. In essence, she has used his own thoughts against him.

Will this scenario one day be possible? And is it even desirable? Neuroscientists have developed and tested technology that can detect whether a person recognizes a place or object. Whether they will ever actually read someone's thoughts is another story.

From Voxels to Thoughts