Future Actions Predicted From Brain Activity 72
An anonymous reader writes "Bringing the real world into the brain scanner, researchers say they can now determine the action a person was planning, mere moments before that action is actually executed. In the study at the University of Western Ontario, human subjects had their brain activity scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they performed one of three hand movements. By using the signals from many brain regions, the researchers could predict, better than chance, which of the actions the volunteer was merely intending to do, seconds later."
If only... (Score:4, Insightful)
If only they could have used this technology to predict them creating this technology.
"Mere Moments" (Score:4, Insightful)
This is far from predicting future actions. I, myself, know what I am going to do moments before I do it. That is because I can think faster than I can act.
It can only predict my actions before I do them, not before I think them. This isn't the start of pre-crime, because that would require planning out your actions before you do. This is not that, and it's not even a step towards that.