Scientists Read Monkeys' Minds, See What They're Planning to Do Before They Do it
How To Construct a 'Circle-Out' Experiment (BYO Monkey) MORAN/PEARCE via WUSTL Neurologists working with monkeys at Washington University in St. Louis to decode brain activity have stumbled upon a rather surprising result. While working to demonstrate that multiple parameters can be seen in the firing rate of a single neuron (and that certain parameters are embedded in neurons only if they are needed to solve the immediate task), they also found that they could read their monkeys' minds. This isn't exactly ESP, but it is really interesting. The researchers came to find out that by analyzing the activity of large populations of neurons, they could discover what actions the monkeys were planning before they made a single motor movement. By monitoring neural activity, the researchers could essentially see what the monkey was thinking about doing next. This discovery occurred largely because the two monkeys involved in the experiment had already demonstrated very...