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Phoenix666 writes:

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