Interesting Technology:

I have chosen to write about functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as I find this technological advancement very interesting. The following is a brief summary of two articles I have read on the topic.

The first article relates to the use of fMRI to predict what someone is looking at. As fMRI detects blood flow in the brain, it can pinpoint the parts involved in cognitive tasks. Using this technology, scientists gathered information about the processing of images in the brain by recording activity in the visual cortex whilst showing participants randomly selected pictures. This information was compiled to develop a computer model that would predict the pattern of brain activity triggered by any image. This computer model was able to correctly predict which picture, out of 1,000 possibilities, a person was shown with 80% accuracy. These technological advances open up a wide range of possibilities for neuroscientific discoveries.


The second article deals with the use of fMRI in lie detection. As it is widely known, polygraph tests are a highly unreliable indicator of deception. However, fMRI may be the answer. It has been discovered, using fMRI, that when lying different parts of the brain are activated than when telling the truth. Though there are some complications with this method, for example deciphering if someone is actually lying or just resisting the temptation to lie, it shows great promise for the future.

http://technologyreview.com/biomedicine/20380/page1/

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