Engineers Translate Brain Signals Directly Into Speech

Can we get one of those for Bob Mueller to use on certain suspects? Fast?

Very misleading...

Indeed when you read the article.

Totally agreed! What one hears is commonly very different from what one thinks!

Translating BLUE thoughts to coherent PINK thoughts will definitely prove problematic.

If it were only as simple to have only 2 colors of thought...

Thoughts may be implanted into one's brain without any personal control.

Actually, television works pretty well at that now...

Actually, this forum works that way too.

Why did they use words that the subjects heard, instead of asking the subjects to think those words themselves? Were the subjects not cooperative?

With a neural net and vocoder to produce the appearance of intelligible thought-speech, there is really no need for it to actually work. Faking it would be so easy. Why bother?

As for captured spies, like other popular methods of producing what the interrogator wants to hear, it sounds totally doable. And relatively humane of course. No need to inflict any torture just set up the neural net/ vocoder to produce the desired confession.

"Why did they use words that the subjects heard, instead of asking the subjects to think those words themselves?"

My suspicion is that the signals transferring information from the auditory sensors: A) are closer to the surface of the skull and partially outside the skull, B) travel longer distances, and C) have higher voltage, than the signals occurring inside the brain. All of these factors would make the signals easier to detect than true thought signals.

I am assuming that thought pretty much occurs within the brain. Now gut feelings is a whole different can of worms!

The auditory cortex is a distinct part of the brain, and within that there's "Brocca's area" iirc which is specifically involved in processing speech. So they would be placing their sensors in that area, no doubt.

Your thoughts OTOH are not happening in Brocca's area unless you are saying or putting them into words. Executive functions, planning decision making and those sort of thoughts are in the frontal cortex afaik. It's doubtless more complex than that - stuff happens all over the brain according to the MRI light shows, but I think that is more or less correct, that most of what we think of as "thought" is in the frontal cortex.. memories would involve the hippocampus; emotions involve other parts. Speech is a very minor part of thought processing - kind of an accessory.

My stomach also growls when I'm hungry and I could swear the thought "I'm hungry" emanates from that area and could probably be picked up by the same gadget pretty easily!

I'm not well informed regarding physiology in general, but what you say sounds authentic.

Regarding thoughts vs. saying those thoughts in words: My first full-time job was teaching college freshman physics, at the same college where I had taken the same class five years earlier. I remember very clearly, that during one of my first few lectures, I had just finished explaining some concept, when I suddenly made a little pause, and thought to myself "My word! That makes sense!"

I don't remember what concept it was, but after explaining that concept in my own words, it suddenly became much clearer to me than it had been previously. I hope it was as clear to my students as it was to me. I continued teaching for 32 years, and had many similar experiences, but that first one really caught me by surprise.

I assume that you've read some of the recent articles that claim that we do indeed have many neurons in our gut region, with significant pathways between those neurons and the neurons of the brain in the skull. It appears that there is real meaning to it when we have a "gut feeling".

It is certainly interesting, how not only memory but also understanding is consolidated by additional levels of processing beyond simple repetition... It makes sense to me, that mastery really begins when the subject emerges from prior knowledge into your own words.

Brain activity during sleep and dreams also plays a role in assimilation of learning/experience. Considering that dreams are so typically not realistic representations or reviews of experience, I think it's an indication of just how complex (and rich) that process is.

My wife reads my thoughts all the time ..... and with remarkable accuracy!

Roger that....I agree, fake news....

This could lead to better understanding between the spouses, as most couples expect the other partner to understand their requirements, without they being uttered phonetically.

Yes, that is one awesome thing that the world is waiting for and I am sure this will revolutionize the whole world. Phase 1- Google translate was invented. (https://translatehub.org/category/translators-guide/) Phase 2: Jarvis was developed. Phase 3 - Brian signals will be translated to speech.