LONDON: The secret world of dreams could soon be cracked open , say scientists . A team at the Max Planck Institute in Munich predict that people could soon use computers to "see" what they have dreamed about - and even record dreams to watch the next day.
The scientists think it has already demonstrated that brain scanners can see into the dreams of "lucid dreamers" - people whocan controltheir dreams .In fact ,tofind out whether dreams could be read in the same way as waking thoughts , the team turned an array of brain-monitoring technology on lucid dreamers .
After tracking down six individuals who claimed to be able to have lucid dreams almost nightly , the team used both functional MRI scanning and near-infrared spectroscopy to observe each person's brain activity as they clenched a hand while awake . They then compared this with the activity associated with imagining clenching the same hand , and clenching the hand in a lucid dream .
"The participants have to fall asleep in a scanner , reach REM sleep and enter a stable lucid dream state . This is a proof-of concept study and provides the first evidence that it may be possible to use brain imaging to read the contents of dream ," said Michael Czisch, who led the team .
The scientists think it has already demonstrated that brain scanners can see into the dreams of "lucid dreamers" - people whocan controltheir dreams .In fact ,tofind out whether dreams could be read in the same way as waking thoughts , the team turned an array of brain-monitoring technology on lucid dreamers .
After tracking down six individuals who claimed to be able to have lucid dreams almost nightly , the team used both functional MRI scanning and near-infrared spectroscopy to observe each person's brain activity as they clenched a hand while awake . They then compared this with the activity associated with imagining clenching the same hand , and clenching the hand in a lucid dream .
"The participants have to fall asleep in a scanner , reach REM sleep and enter a stable lucid dream state . This is a proof-of concept study and provides the first evidence that it may be possible to use brain imaging to read the contents of dream ," said Michael Czisch, who led the team .
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