American scientists have created a device that allows to assess the similarity of thoughts from people in conversation and find out if the interlocutors understand each other.
This is stated in an article published in the journal Scientific Reports.
“We live in a society in which every person constantly interacts with his own kind. Now we have a tool that will allow you to figure out how the brain works during the execution of various daily tasks, including communicating with other people,” said Hasan Ayaz (Ayaz Hasan) from Drexel University in Philadelphia (USA).
According to Ayaz, neuroscientists in the world today dream of creating a device that would allow to decipher the thoughts of individuals, to compare between them and determine which parts of the brain responsible for our consciousness and thinking. In recent years biologists have learned to read the mental answer “Yes” or “no” to simple questions from completely paralyzed people. However, to achieve more so far failed.
Barrier to solution of the problem is that until neuroscientists can observe only in laboratory conditions. Monitor what is happening in the minds of the interlocutors in an informal conversation, remain inaccessible to scientists.
Ayaz and his colleagues have eliminated this shortcoming by creating a system that allows you to “overhear” the thoughts of the volunteers and compare them, using devices worn on the head. These “bandages” are so-called infrared spectroscopy is a relatively new device that can “see” the hemoglobin molecule inside the human brain.
Watching the concentration and changes in the distribution of hemoglobin in the brain, scientists can determine which areas of the brain more involved in time. The activity of different brain areas, in turn, is connected with what a person thinks. Ayaz suggests that the monitoring of this can help to understand, whether you understand each other the sides and how different are their thoughts.
Following this idea, the scientists tracked the brain three students, one of whom was American and the other two natives of Turkey. The authors asked the Turks to tell each other stories from their lives in Turkish and English, and followed what was happening in the minds of all three volunteers.
These observations led to interesting results – it turned out that the “pictures” of brain activity read by the bandages, coincide only when people understand and realize what he’s talking about another member’s experience.
Such devices, comparing the thoughts of the people in the future can be used to analyze, for example, how well do students understand the lecturer how effective policy to convey their ideas to voters and in other cases, when not to use bulky and non-transportable lab equipment.
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