Watching a Single Thought Form in the Brain

New techniques to capture single thought processes open up new possibilities for neuro-imaging.

One of the long-term goals of the field of neuro-imaging is to understand what a person is thinking just by looking at the pattern of his or her brain activity–in essence, reading the mind. While that feat is still a long way off, scientists at the University of New Mexico have taken an important step by refining neuro-imaging techniques to the point where they can reliably detect a single thought forming in an individual’s brain.

The technique could be used to improve clinical applications of neuro-imaging, such as patient diagnosis, or to study cognitive processes that are fleeting or irreproducible, such as learning a new skill. "This could open up a whole new dimension of how fMRI could be used," says Peter Bandettini, director of the fMRI core facility at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.

By Emily Singer

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