Video & Multimedia
Related: About this forumScientists capture video of a thought being formed in a brain
For the first time, Japanese scientists captured video of a thought being formed, and it looks pretty much like miniature lightning tracing its way through a meshed structure of neurons:
Of course, this is not a human brain that mad scientists exported from a skull and sliced up in the pursuit of scientific information. Rather, this is a the brain of a baby zebrafish and it wasnt even harmed in the experiment. Researchers chose this creature because in their embryonic and larval states, zebrafish have the wonderful property of being almost completely transparent.
The scientists dosed the baby fish with fluorescencing agents that glow when neurons are activated, then induced a paramecium a tiny protozoa about 200 micrometers in length to swim by, causing the zebrafish to perk up and think about a snack.
That caused neural impulses to be fired off in the zebrafishs optic tectum, a region of the midbrain. Which the Japanese researchers then captured video of, and, naturally, uploaded to YouTube, solving once and for all the perplexing question: what do fish think of?
Mostly, it appears, lunch. Which is not too different from humans, perhaps.
http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/01/scientists-capture-video-of-a-thought-being-formed-in-a-brain/
FailureToCommunicate
(14,016 posts)"Hope I don't end up as sushi"
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)ie: Mind control
or mind fucking
I am still amazed that our brains are capable of such complex thoughts, not to mention self awareness.
Shivering Jemmy
(900 posts)This was possible because zebrafish see-through heads.
If you're worried about people reading minds with technology, I can tell you that it's already been done:
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-09/mind-reading-tech-reconstructs-videos-brain-images
http://www.princeton.edu/~fpereira/Papers/aij.pdf
to give you just a few links.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)zebonaut
(3,688 posts)is to compare the thought of a right wing brain; to a normal progressive one. We will see evidence of lack of activity in the right wing brain; and normal functioning in the progressive brain.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)The "miniature lightning" would turn out to be a night light...
Welcome to DU!
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)The odds are that the owner of the progressive brain will still -- against ALL reason -- allow the owner of the right wing brain to get their way every time.
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Did anyone else react in that way?
I'm not joking.
siligut
(12,272 posts)Interesting. Are you unusually sensitive?
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)(See below.)
Ian Iam
(386 posts)Perhaps the scientists should have started with something vastly more simple, such as the brain of a right-wing human.
kimmylavin
(2,284 posts)And strangely beautiful...
B Stieg
(2,410 posts)We all saw this already in Fantastic Voyage (1966), didn't we?
pitbullgirl1965
(564 posts)Glad the little guy wasn't hurt!
Javaman
(62,531 posts)name the movie!
siligut
(12,272 posts)Very cool to see though.