They observed the brains of computer programmers under fMRI while they were reading code:
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures changes in blood flow throughout the brain, has been used over the past couple of decades for a variety of applications, including "functional anatomy" — a way of determining which brain areas are switched on when a person carries out a particular task. fMRI has been used to look at people's brains while they're doing all sorts of things — working out math problems, learning foreign languages, playing chess, improvising on the piano, doing crossword puzzles, and even watching TV shows like "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
The new paper built on a 2020 study, written by many of the same authors, which used fMRI to monitor the brains of programmers as they "comprehended" small pieces, or snippets, of code. (Comprehension, in this case, means looking at a snippet and correctly determining the result of the computation performed by the snippet.) The 2020 work showed that code comprehension did not consistently activate the language system, brain regions that handle language processing, explains Fedorenko, a brain and cognitive sciences (BCS) professor and a coauthor of the earlier study. "Instead, the multiple demand network — a brain system that is linked to general reasoning and supports domains like mathematical and logical thinking — was strongly active." The current work, which also utilizes MRI scans of programmers, takes "a deeper dive," she says, seeking to obtain more fine-grained information.
[...] The team carried out a second set of experiments, which incorporated machine learning models called neural networks that were specifically trained on computer programs. These models have been successful, in recent years, in helping programmers complete pieces of code. What the group wanted to find out was whether the brain signals seen in their study when participants were examining pieces of code resembled the patterns of activation observed when neural networks analyzed the same piece of code. And the answer they arrived at was a qualified yes.
How close is this to mind-reading?
(Score: 4, Touché) by EJ on Monday February 06, @04:55PM (7 children)
Mind reading? To me, it sounds like trying to figure out what someone's score is on a game by watching the CPU under an IR microscope.
There is SO much more to thought than just blood flow. Sure, with biofeedback, a person could possibly learn how to control an fMRI-connected peripheral, but that's kind of like learning how to blink out Morse code.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Ox0000 on Monday February 06, @06:43PM (2 children)
You are spot on, blood flow != thought. I do think that it's more a first step in trying to locate "where is the brain activity happening for task T and roughly in what intensity". Because not all activity happens in the same place, the place you expect(ed), or even in the same place across individuals. Later on, these learnings will be used to target the activity much more accurately. I think right now we're using the tools we do have at our disposal to start probing what we can. It's probably somewhat similar to what we did before the days of proper microscopes.
You mention bio-feedback and there is indeed some research being done in training individuals on how to "control their brain waves". I don't know if, scientifically, that's (potentially) actually a real thing or whether it's to be categorized in the same bucket as remote viewing (i.e. BS).
I think it was about 15 years or so ago when I read some articles about brain-scanners enabling researchers to deduce "roughly" what you were thinking about. They found a way to differentiate different activity patterns such as "you're thinking of a [human|flower|object]", etc. all the way to (basic) colors as well, e.g. "a red human". I don't remember whether they used (f)MRI or one of them floppy wired hats they put on your head. Interesting stuff though, and that was at least 15 years ago.
All that being said, learning how to blink out Morse code, could come in handy in certain circumstances [wikipedia.org]...
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday February 06, @09:38PM
Training to control the brain waves. Yes, it's a real thing. And it works for that purpose. But it's really difficult to maintain without a feedback system, and is easily lost. Also don't believe the claims about the secondary effects. If you want to learn to control your blood pressure, you need to practice on THAT, not on brain waves. And you still need that feedback system. (It's actually easier to reduce your salt intake. My wife got hers down to the point some doctors thought it was dangerous, but her blood pressure never went too low for that reason.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Touché) by driverless on Tuesday February 07, @04:38AM
I wonder if they compared it to a baseline reading from a post-mortem Atlantic salmon [scientificamerican.com] to see what its programming comprehension was like?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Monday February 06, @07:17PM (3 children)
It's like watching which parts of a chip are suddenly using more power.
You can get some sort of general idea of system organization. But not a lot deeper. You might recognize that a certain area "must" be an ALU. But you're probably not going to understand how registers or flip-flops work.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Monday February 06, @09:03PM (2 children)
In this case, certainly.
But other cutting-edge research is getting to the point of being able to use AI systems to interpret your brain activity to recreate a crude approximation of the image you're looking at, and if I recall correctly, even images you're strongly imagining.
Not sure if that's fMRI or something else, but we're slowly but surely pushing the line toward mind-reading.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday February 06, @09:54PM (1 child)
Now if only they could discover whether certain programming languages cause unusual or bizarre patterns of brain activity.
Maybe only in managers.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Tuesday February 07, @01:49AM
So far they seem to have found only that some program structures (such as loops) elicit different brain use patterns.
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Monday February 06, @08:50PM
My Pentium II told me.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday February 06, @08:59PM (1 child)
Makes sense to me - you're not reading a language, you're examining a machine in order to understand how it works. That the parts and linkages happen to be represented by something with a passing resemblance to language is immaterial.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday February 07, @04:46AM
Indeed, if your networks for logical thinking don't activate when reading code, you clearly can't be a programmer.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.