Do you remember how in the movie “The Matrix”, Keanu Reeves was able to learn anything from Kung-Fu to using firearms in just couple of seconds. That might prove possible according to a new research conducted at Boston University and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan.
Think of a person watching a computer screen and having his or her brain patterns adjusted to match those of a high-performing athlete. Though preliminary, researchers say such possibilities may exist in the future.
The scientists found out that patients can quickly learn new skills while having their brain patterns modified via decoded fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). The innovative method could rework brain activities to help people recover from an accident, learn how to play a piano or even fly a plane.
What is even more interesting is that the approached worked even when test subjects were not aware of what they were learning.
"The most surprising thing in this study is that mere inductions of neural activation patterns corresponding to a specific visual feature led to visual performance improvement on the visual feature, without presenting the feature or subjects' awareness of what was to be learned," said Takeo Watanabe, one of the developers of the idea for the research project.
Darn, those future people! They will have it all way too easy. Instead of spending years (like us) to get their university degree they will just press a button and have it all in couple of minutes. :)
Now this is some crazy technology that could actually be pretty dangerous. This could be used to train military, which is a scary thought. Also, athletes wouldn't even be picked because of their skills anymore. You could make a whole team of athletes by just finding people of the right size and making a team. Interesting thoughh
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