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posted by martyb on Saturday September 10 2016, @11:38AM   Printer-friendly
from the face-the-facts? dept.

Volunteers who started an experiment feeling neutral about certain faces they saw ended up unknowingly adopting the feelings that scientists induced via an MRI feedback technique, according to newly published research.

The study in PLOS Biology

therefore suggests that there is a single region of the brain where both positive and negative feelings for faces take shape and provides the second demonstration this year that the MRI technique can be used to train a mental process in an unknowing subject. This spring, the team used the same method to associate the perception of color with the context of a pattern so strongly that volunteers saw the color when cued by the pattern, even if the color wasn't really there.

In the new study, the researchers sought to determine whether they could direct feelings about faces -- a more sophisticated brain function that is closer to their eventual goal, which is to develop the technique to the point where it could become a tool for psychological therapy, for instance for anxiety.

It is not yet known whether the technique, dubbed "DecNef" for "Decoded Neurofeedback," persists for a long time after a procedure. The researchers acknowledged the potential misuse of DecNef for brainwashing.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by rts008 on Saturday September 10 2016, @12:10PM

    by rts008 (3001) on Saturday September 10 2016, @12:10PM (#399969)

    The researchers acknowledged the potential misuse of DecNef for brainwashing.

    Potential misuse? I would have said certain misuse, instead.
    Expect heavy investment in this from corporate advert/marketing dept.'s, and their political puppets.
    Oh, and coming soon: 'there's an app for that'...

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Saturday September 10 2016, @12:44PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 10 2016, @12:44PM (#399972) Journal

    Expect heavy investment in this from corporate advert/marketing dept.'s, and their political puppets.

    If you're thinking "What could Facebook or Disney do with this?" then you're completely missing the real problems like national intelligence agencies. Those "political puppets" have power beyond wealth.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 10 2016, @02:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 10 2016, @02:47PM (#399996)

    Potential misuse? I would have said certain misuse, instead.

    Go spread your conspiracy theories somewhere else, freak. Next you are going to claim that we never went to the moon, that the Earth is actually flat and space is not what NASA tells us. What, 9/11 and Boston bombings were staged too?

    There is this thing called 'school' and 'internet', you know. Perhaps you should, like, go there sometime and learn stuff and things, OK?

    Just give me ONE example of JUST ONE government lying to its citizens, and ONE BAD THING the corporations did, commie!

    • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday September 10 2016, @10:21PM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday September 10 2016, @10:21PM (#400123) Homepage

      What I learned in evolutionary biology class was that the reason why Black people are scary is because it is seeing white eyes against a dark background triggers our primal fear of being watched by predators in the dark, kind of like when you get up in the middle of the night to take a piss and see your housecat's eyes "glow" due to the way their eyes reflect light. [wikipedia.org] Except to your ancestors, it could have been a mountain lion.

      Now, there is the potential for that to be pleasant if, along with the eyes in the darkness, there was also an earnest smile of white teeth -- however, for a variety of reasons both biological and historical, Black people never smile. Ever.

  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday September 10 2016, @05:45PM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday September 10 2016, @05:45PM (#400050) Journal

    Fortunately there's an easy way to avoid it: Just buy a phone without a built-in MRI machine (which should be 100% of them for at least the next 50 years, given that MRI machines are not exactly portable).

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.