There will be a machine to read

A recent study by scientists from Japan has found a way to 'read' people's dreams based on a brain scanner. The device can help 'visualize' images that people often see when they fall asleep.

The study was published in the journal Science and researchers believe that the brain scanner has an accuracy of up to 60%. The team can now rely on brain activities to predict the state of dreams, such as emotional developments throughout sleep.

Dr Yukiyasu Kamitani from the ATR Neuroscience Experimental Center in Tokyo said: 'I have a firm belief that dream decoding is possible, at least in the special states of dream . I'm not completely surprised at this result, but I really feel excited about it. '

Brainwave

Humans have tried to decipher the dream from ancient Egypt, but researchers have recently gone into a closer study of night dreams.

The team used an MRI scanner (specialized magnetic resonance scanner for medical scans) to conduct experiments with three people while they were sleeping. When the volunteers participating in the study began to fall into deep sleep while lying in the scanner, they were woken up and asked to recount what they saw in their dreams.

Brain activity is compatible with images that people have seen in their dreams.

The images of dreams are noted, from bronze statues, keys and even ice, to any surreal image. This is repeated more than 200 times for each participating member.

The researchers used this result to create a database, where they grouped similar topics into similar types of image objects. For example, hotels, houses and high-rise buildings are grouped into a list called 'structure'.

After that, the volunteers captured the dream. This time, when they are awakened, they will be able to see the dream picture appear on a computer screen. With this, they were able to see specific patterns of brain activity that correlated with visual images.

Dream reading machine?

In subsequent sleep experiment programs, by tracking brain scanners, researchers were able to predict what volunteers saw in their dreams. They were able to assess the accuracy of up to 60% of the images that appeared in the dream.

Researchers want to continue studying deeper sleeps, where dreams are most vivid. They also want to consider whether brain scanners can help them predict the emotions, smells, colors and actions that people experience when they are asleep.

Dr. Mark Stokes, a cognitive neurologist at Oxford University, said these emotions are an "interesting" part of the study and are bringing us closer to the concept of dream reading machines. However, he added that a single dream reading system would not be able to 'understand' everyone.

'This work is done on individual subjects. Therefore, you will never build a common program that can read anyone's dream. All of them have their own personal style, and brain activities will never be the same on every subject, ' he said, ' You will never build a human mind reader. but the machine knows nothing about that person '.