Editorial: "Let the mind-reading begin"
Understand how the brain turns thoughts into words and you can make machines that read minds
AS YOU begin to read this article and your eyes follow the words across the page, you may be aware of a voice in your head silently muttering along. Most of us do it when we talk, listen, write letters or emails. The very same thing is happening to me as I type these words: a private internal narrative is shaping the words before I commit them to text.
What if we could tap into another person's inner voice? Thinking of words does, after all, create characteristic electrical signals in our brains, and decoding them could make it possible to piece together our thoughts. Such an ability would have phenomenal prospects, not least for people unable to communicate as a result of brain damage. But it would also ...
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