Word: brained
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...list of eight beverages, which they were asked to rate in appeal on a scale of 1 to 5. The investigators then outfitted each participant with a headband equipped with fiber-optic strands that projected infrared light through the scalp and skull and into the prefrontal cortex, a brain area critical for processing preference. Infrared imaging is typically used to detect heat, which is just what the researchers were looking for. The volunteers were shown pictures of different pairs of drinks from their original list and asked to mentally decide which one they liked better while Chau and Luu monitored...
...activated areas of the brain receive more blood and more oxygen, the optical properties [of the brain tissue] change," says Luu. "This allows us to infer the pattern of activity beneath." As it turned out, they inferred very well. Blood flow was not a perfect predictor, but fully 80% of the time, the pattern on the brain monitor did suggest the preferences the subjects had indicated earlier...
Chau and Luu are not the first to experiment with a technique like this. In the terra incognita of cognitive research, brain-computer interfaces are increasingly common - but complicated. Typically, subjects have to be trained to use them and must rehearse a random, energy-intensive brain task like mentally singing a song in order to light up a pattern of brain activity that sends a signal to the researchers. The new technique extracts information much more directly by targeting the frontal lobe's preference functions. What's more, while other studies have required the subjects to activate their brains over...
Still, there are bugs to overcome. Since strong dislike may excite blood flow as easily as strong like, it is important to first run a few preliminary infrared scans to determine the particular blood-flow signature of a person's brain, and then to calibrate the computer accordingly. That, however, is a relatively easy tweak, no more complicated than customizing voice-recognition software to individual users. "It's really just a matter of refining the algorithms," says Chau. "We envision this at the very least as a preference detector that allows people to direct their own care...
...site of Chicago’s Sue Duncan Childrens’ Center is a grainy reprinted photo of a group of boys and young men dated 1977. Of the group, one has become a brain surgeon, another is a top administrator in education, and a third is an Oscar-nominated actor. Three of the others pictured are now dead—victims of violence in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago’s South Side. And finally, one gangly child smiles into the camera with a basketball palmed in his adolescent hand. More than 30 years later...