Brain scan technologies still can't do mind reading as such, but
they do provide a window into what the human brain is doing at a
given time. Now a computer algorithm has used brain activity
patterns to predict which of three activities human volunteers
were remembering. Scientists showed 10 volunteers three short
films that featured women carrying out ordinary activities. Some
of the footage included drinking coffee and then tossing the
paper cup, as well as mailing out a letter. The volunteers then
recalled each of the films inside an fMRI brain scanner, which
gauges brain activity based on changes in the brain's blood
flow. That allowed the computer algorithm to study the brain
activity patterns, and then start predicting purely based on the
patterns.University College London researchers at the Wellcome
Trust Center for Neuroimaging focused specifically on the
hippocampus region of the brain, which seems to play a crucial
role in recording episodic memories. Three particular areas of
the hippocampus lit up