Looking Inside the Brain in Real Time

You can watch another interesting video below. This time it's a short one that is only about 3 to 4 minutes long. Basically the guy in the video is talking about using real time brain imaging as a method for manipulating an individual's brain functioning. This is similar to neurofeedback, but is much more sophisticated. Neurofeedback is a way of changing your brainwaves using an EEG reading as a guide. This method involves looking at a MRI type scan of your brain so you can watch real time activation or deactivation of specific areas. Doing this allows you to change your brain functioning as you can now see the effect of manipulating your own thought processes in real time. So a scientists could ask you to try to increase or decrease activity in a certain brain area and you would be able to watch a video of your progress in doing that task. It would give a person the tools to be able to shape their own brain's activity levels. This could potentially have utility for many different disorders ranging from depression to attention deficit to pain management.

"Soom you'll be able to look inside your brain and program, control the hundreds of brain areas that you see there."

He says that we are the first generation that is going to be able to use this sophisticated technology. It is the result of much better brain scanning equipment that has become available in recent years. He mentions that many aspects of our humanity could potentially be altered by looking at a brain scan and willfully trying to activate or deactivate specific brain areas. I'm definitely intrigued by this short video, though somewhat skeptical whether it will allow people to change themselves all that much. I think the brain has a lot of homeostatic mechanism to make sure it can't be altered too much. However this technology could definitely find use in psychiatry in the future.