Remember
the Matrix where all you need to do to learn kung fu is to get it uploaded
to your brain? Well, that may soon be coming to real life:
New research published today in the journal Science suggests it
may be possible to use brain technology to learn to play a piano, reduce
mental stress or hit a curve ball with little or no conscious effort.
It’s the kind of thing seen in Hollywood’s "Matrix" franchise.Experiments conducted at Boston University (BU) and ATR Computational
Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, recently demonstrated that
through a person’s visual cortex, researchers could use decoded functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to induce brain activity patterns
to match a previously known target state and thereby improve performance
on visual tasks.Think of a person watching a computer screen and having his or
her brain patterns modified to match those of a high-performing athlete
or modified to recuperate from an accident or disease. Though preliminary,
researchers say such possibilities may exist in the future.
Link
– via Science360