People have wanted to look inside the human brain and mind for a very long time, like thousands of years. They used to think this would be very difficult to accomplish. But now, fresh out of the research labs is the possibility to do that with a new technology that we will be looking at more in depth through the rest of this post. What is even cooler about this new technology is the ability to look at the brain in real time.
deChambers first starts telling us about the technology, called neuroimaging therapy, that is being used to look at the brain by saying that we will be looking at his colleagues brain in real time. This is done by using an MRI, which is noninvasive, he says you do not have to inject anything or use radiation. So looking at his colleague's, Peter, brain you can see that when he moves his arm a little yellow spot on the right side of his brain is the face of his mind. This technology is really cool because you are seeing the brain as other things are happening right during that very moment. It has been done before to control a robot with electrodes, and that brain imaging and scanners can show you the inside of your brain but all of that takes days to months to get back the information from analyzing it. With this new technology all of the information is collapsed in milliseconds, which allows Peter and whoever else is using it to look at their brain in real time. If you can look at all the patterns in your brain and understand it then you will be able to learn how to control it.
Before neuroimagaing therapy there were only three ways to control brain function, those being psychotherapy, pharmacology, and neurosurgery. Soon everyone will have this fourth opportunity. Since we will be able to control our brain that is going to allow us to manipulate and help out our daily lives. If you burn your hand then you automatically take it away from the hot substance and you will immediately not feel the pain anymore. Chronic pain is another story; the circuits that are producing the pain are no longer helping you. Now with nueroimaging you will be able to look at the activation in your brain that is producing the pain, then you can look at a 3D model of the brain and watch in real time it process information, from there you will be able to identify where the pain is coming from. "If you can control you brain then you can control your pain,” says deChambers. This technology is going to decrease chronic pain in 44-64% of patients. You are only able to do this in your own brain; you cannot control other people's brains.
If and when we, the public, get a chance to use this I am really curious what people will do with it. What I mean is what part of their mind will they choose to control, there are so many different ones. The different parts to control are choice, free will, joy, fear, pain, vision, brilliance, truth, and love. I am not even sure which one I would want to learn how to control first, that is such a tough choice! I guess I would have to think about what means the most to me. If I had to pick quickly without even giving it much thought I would probably choose fear. I am not really sure why it just seems like a good thing to minimize and like it would make your life more enjoyable if you had less of it.
I think you should give some thought to which part of your brain you would want to be able to control first. If you are still interested in this type of stuff then I would really suggest watching this TED talk and maybe even researching some more about this topic like I am about to do.
deChambers first starts telling us about the technology, called neuroimaging therapy, that is being used to look at the brain by saying that we will be looking at his colleagues brain in real time. This is done by using an MRI, which is noninvasive, he says you do not have to inject anything or use radiation. So looking at his colleague's, Peter, brain you can see that when he moves his arm a little yellow spot on the right side of his brain is the face of his mind. This technology is really cool because you are seeing the brain as other things are happening right during that very moment. It has been done before to control a robot with electrodes, and that brain imaging and scanners can show you the inside of your brain but all of that takes days to months to get back the information from analyzing it. With this new technology all of the information is collapsed in milliseconds, which allows Peter and whoever else is using it to look at their brain in real time. If you can look at all the patterns in your brain and understand it then you will be able to learn how to control it.
Before neuroimagaing therapy there were only three ways to control brain function, those being psychotherapy, pharmacology, and neurosurgery. Soon everyone will have this fourth opportunity. Since we will be able to control our brain that is going to allow us to manipulate and help out our daily lives. If you burn your hand then you automatically take it away from the hot substance and you will immediately not feel the pain anymore. Chronic pain is another story; the circuits that are producing the pain are no longer helping you. Now with nueroimaging you will be able to look at the activation in your brain that is producing the pain, then you can look at a 3D model of the brain and watch in real time it process information, from there you will be able to identify where the pain is coming from. "If you can control you brain then you can control your pain,” says deChambers. This technology is going to decrease chronic pain in 44-64% of patients. You are only able to do this in your own brain; you cannot control other people's brains.
If and when we, the public, get a chance to use this I am really curious what people will do with it. What I mean is what part of their mind will they choose to control, there are so many different ones. The different parts to control are choice, free will, joy, fear, pain, vision, brilliance, truth, and love. I am not even sure which one I would want to learn how to control first, that is such a tough choice! I guess I would have to think about what means the most to me. If I had to pick quickly without even giving it much thought I would probably choose fear. I am not really sure why it just seems like a good thing to minimize and like it would make your life more enjoyable if you had less of it.
I think you should give some thought to which part of your brain you would want to be able to control first. If you are still interested in this type of stuff then I would really suggest watching this TED talk and maybe even researching some more about this topic like I am about to do.