Scientists create ‘Dream Catcher’
Scientists claim to have created a world-first ‘Dream Catcher’, a computer able to read the minds of sleeping people with up to 60 per cent accuracy. FULL STORY
Japanese scientists claim to have created a world-first ‘Dream Catcher’, a computer able to read the minds of sleeping people with up to 60 per cent accuracy.
Although not as advanced as machines seen in the movie ‘Inception’, experts from the respected journal Science say the research is “stunning in its detail and success”.
The study, Neural Decoding of Visual Imagery During Sleep, was conducted in three main parts. Scientists scanned the brains of three people as they slept in an MRI machine.
Every six or seven minutes, they were awoken and asked to describe any dream they’d been having.
The process was repeated until each participant had recounted at least 200 dreams.
The dream descriptions were analysed and the key themes for each participant placed into twenty categories, such as men, women, tools, books and cars.
The volunteers were then shown photos corresponding to objects from the categories and their brains were scanned again.
During the scan, the computer program learnt to identify brain activity ‘signatures’ for each category.
Finally, the computer put its new skill to the test, trying to decode what the participants were dreaming of while they slept.
Incredibly, the computer identified the images being dreamt about 60 per cent of the time.
Researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani remarked that the outcome is far higher than would occur due to pure chance.
Dream expert Dr Robert Stickgold from Harvard Medical School in Boston, says it was likely “the first real demonstration of the brain basis of dream content”.
“Up until this moment, there were no grounds on which to say we don't just make up our dreams when we wake up,” he told Science.
However, some neuroscientists have queried the study, saying the volunteers were sleeping so lightly that they weren’t technically dreaming.
But the Japanese researchers believe there are similarities to dreaming during light and deep sleep.
Despite the progress, it seems we are still far from having a machine that can fully read our dreams – and our minds.
