Insights into how human brains categorize objects–and their potential for human-computer interfaces as well as neuropsychiatry–have been drawn by members of Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU’s) Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology. Research from CMU neuroscientists Marcel Just and Vladimir Cherkassky and computer scientists Tom Mitchell and Sandesh Aryal signals that people represent all non-human objects in terms of three dimensions, defined by Just as relating to eating, shelter, and the way the object is employed. With fMRI, the scientists discovered that objects belonging to a specific dimension induced activity in a specific region of the brain. The researchers also learned that they could anticipate which parts of the brain would be triggered by new words and that they could determine how many objects were being thought about. Just says that scientists can “identify the quantity a person is thinking about, as long as [they] instantiate it as an object.” He says the research clears a path for further enhancements in direct communications between the human brain and computers. Additional augmentations to the technology could enable people to communicate with computers by thought.
For More Information Visit: http://www.cpccci.com
