Reading the patterns of spatial memories
Brain imaging alone accurately predicts a person’s location in a virtual room
Harry Potter had it easy: All he had to do to see another wizard’s memories was peer into that wizard’s swirling pensieve. Mind-reading is not so simple for everybody else. But a new study reveals that even those without magical gadgets may one day “see” someone else’s memories.
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In the study, which appears online March 12 in Current Biology, researchers used patterns of brain activity to accurately predict where someone was standing in a virtual room.
Each of four study participants sat down to a computer and toured a large virtual room. The room contained objects that helped volunteers get oriented, including clocks, chairs and pictures. As participants navigated through the virtual space, brain cells preserved the memory of the route taken to the final location (“turn left at the picture of the boat”).