Functional MRI machine that can even teach you to build a space rocket, if needed!

Remember that classic scene from The Matrix, when Neo is introduced in the 'real' world, while a software program machine teaches him highfalutin combat moves from Jujitsu to Taekwondo? Now, many of you high-tech aficionados may have been mighty impressed by the concept: a machine which teaches us to do stuff by altering (and rather improving) our sub conscious realm. But what if we told you that some scientists have already contrived a credible mechanism, which is analogous to the aforementioned concept? Read on to find out more.

Functional MRI machine can even teach you to build a space rocket, if needed!

A few months ago, researchers from UC Berkeley successfully designed a functional MRI (or fMRI) machine, which could map your brain patterns, and then literally present a nigh similar picture of what you were thinking (in screens). And now, some scientists from a joint American and Japanese team have come across a technique which is almost reverse in conception. In simpler terms, this means that if images could be perceived (in screens) from monitoring our brain patterns, certain patterns could also be introduced in our brain by using fMRI machines.

We take a very simple scenario to present an example. Let us say, you choose a task that requires improved concentration and high degree of visual co-ordination; like shooting a small target from afar. So, the process requires you to find someone who is an experienced sharp shooter. Now, this person can be 'jacked' to the fMRI machine for brain mapping. The contraption records the volume of internal brain patterns, while the sharp shooter is visualizing about successfully aiming (and hitting) a far off target. This sort of creates a high precision aiming program inside the machine (just like in The Matrix). Now, it is your turn to be jacked to the machine. Once this is done, the 'aiming and hitting' imagery (recorded earlier with the sharp shooter) is induced into your own brain by utilizing neuro feedback. According to the scientists, one does not even have to pay attention, while the procedure is being incorporated within your mental scope. The brain somehow can familiarize itself with the ongoing pattern, and actually can also improve upon the induction process by repeated conditioning. After all, this is what learning is about; and so, you can be a pro at just about anything under the sun.

Now, coming back to the constraints of practicality, some of us skeptical folk might find it to be a tad bit ludicrous. But the truth of the matter is that researchers from Berkley have already exhibited one facet of this momentous technology. Analogous to a mind reading technique, their conception displayed images directly from the internal visual patterns concocted by the brain. And, in this case, (as mentioned earlier) the process is being reversed by introducing patterns back into the brain. According to the scientists, the intriguing technique is known as automated learning. As for its advantages, the procedure can have long lasting efficiency in tasks involving visual co-ordination. So, in the future, teachers and schools might just become extinct breeds.

Source: Dvice