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Thanks to Carnegie Mellon University advances in brain imaging technology, we now know how specific concrete objects are coded in the brain, to the point where we can identify which object, such as a house or a banana, someone is thinking about from its brain activation signature.
Now, CMU scientists are applying this knowledge about the neural representations of familiar concepts by teaching people new concepts and watching the new neural representations develop. Published in Human Brain Mapping, the scientists have -- for the first time -- documented the formation of a newly learned concept inside the brain and show that it occurs in the same brain areas for everyone.
This novel research merges brain science and instructional innovation, two of Carnegie Mellon's university-wide initiatives -- BrainHub, which focuses on how the structure and activity of the brain give rise to complex behaviors, and the Simon Initiative, which aims to measurably improve student learning outcomes by harnessing decades of learning science research.
Another scary and exciting field in the offing. We'll both be able to scan new languages and skills into our heads and make sure our brainwashing techniques have taken effect.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Thursday June 11 2015, @06:26PM
From the Fine Article:
while the scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor the emergence of the concepts in the participants' brains. As the new properties were taught, the activation levels in the eating regions and the dwelling regions changed.
So we see a little picture of the new idea being stored in a brain? No, we detect increased blood-flow in an area of the brain, which (presumably) indicates "activation". In otherwords, we still have absolutely no idea how the brain works, but we can localize particular functions, like Broca's area. Only thing worse the quantum mechanics: Neuromania!