Japanese Researchers have developed a new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor. Further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

By studying the activity in the brain when a subject is looking at a particular visual field, scientists have subsequently been able to work backwards in producing images translated from brain activity.

A future version of this technology could be applied in the fields of art and design — particularly if it becomes possible to quickly and accurately access images existing inside an artist’s head. According to the scientists, this technology can also be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also become possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.

(via NewScientist)

How many times has this happened to you? You leave work and want to drop off the clothes at the dry cleaner on the way home - next thing you know, you are already at home and your dry cleaning? Well, you might be suffering from what Yale researchers call “dry cleaning effect”.

This minor error of memory may be evidence of two competing parts of the brain, one that harbors habits, and another involved in learning. Read about how dueling brain systems may explain why you forget to drop off the dry cleaning.

(via Softpedia)

Remember the Blue Brain project? In this video (from seedmagazine.com, length 15 min) Henry Markram, the head of the project, explains his research.

You don’t forget how to ride a bicycle. This has been proven true: Scientists have been able to show that new cell contacts established during a learning process stay put, even when they are no longer required.

Read about how the brain structures change through learning and forgetting. 

(via redorbit.com)