The ‘mind readers’

What kind of mind reading power do you want to have? If you were in media, would you want to know if your ad or program will engage the thousands, even the millions of people who will see it? How about getting about 16 people to watch it while hooked on brainwave reading machines (EEG)?  If their brainwaves are in agreement, chances are, you can capture hordes of consumers’ attention, at least in terms of their likes on social media.

A recent study found that when it comes to engaging programs and ads, a small test audience could predict its reception in a much larger audience. The study did this by having 16 subjects watch scenes from “The Walking Dead” and some ads from past SuperBowls and see how these will predict likes on FB and other social media.

The study says it only works on ads and programs that are engaging (watch out for future studies on what your brain looks like when watching boring ads). Perhaps you will soon see more and more of media and advertising outfits acquiring brainwave reading machines and getting neuroscience consultants. Some of these companies are already exploiting what we know so far about the brain to understand what makes us buy stuff.

One of them was founded by an engineer, Patrick Renvoise, who gave a TedX Talk. To me, he seemed pretty certain he has nailed the buying brain.  To him, the whole marketing/sales affair involved “feeding” the reptilian brain – that primitive part of our brains which cradles our most basic instincts of seeking reward and avoiding pain.  I personally thought it was too simplistic of a view of the shopping brain.

According to Slate magazine, there are about 100 of these neuromarketing firms that mushroomed since the advent of cheap brainwave reading machines. However, the bottomline so far in neuroscience is that there is yet no formula or mapped picture of human brainwaves or bloodflow that will ensure that when you like what you see, you will head out to the cash register to pay for it.

We have a few of these brainwave reading machines where I work. The gadgets we have can only tell whether you are focusing or are distracted. It cannot tell what you are focusing on or what you were distracted with. In other words, it cannot read minds.

I think that is the misconception about the neuroscientific studies – they give the impression to the public that machines can already read minds. Well, recently, an experiment was able to transmit information brain to brain using EEG. The message are coded and translated to signals and transmitted through the Internet to another receiver which again translates it to signals that the receiver brains can decode.

The message that traveled from a brain in India to 3 people in France was “hello” and “ciao”. It was an awfully complicated process for one hello but you can read about it here in detail.  We are a long way yet from sending a recipe, a manuscript, a legal draft or a grant proposal or whatever is your mind’s pleasure, brain to brain.

In current reality, what we can glean from brainwaves are mainly associations to states – such as attentive or meditative. With MRIs – it is mainly also an association with bloodflow in brain parts/regions associated with a function or behavior. There is no machine yet that you can wear so you and others can see your thoughts without you having to express them. (I can just imagine how exponentially frenzied social media would be if we could just post messages directly from our brains.)

We have a couple of computer scientist kids who are doing a project for us using brainwave reading machines. As a progress report, they sent me a video. It had one kid hooked on a brainwave reading machine. As long as he registers “attention”, he is able to power a toy car on its track. The more focus he musters, the faster the car.

After a few minutes of the car running fast, another kid’s voice is heard on the video: “Pare, kumakatok na sa pinto girlfriend mo” (Hey dude, your girlfriend is knocking on the door.’). Then you notice the car slow down.

Then you hear the voice again: “Pare, kasama Nanay niya.” The car goes into a complete stop immediately.  

There is nothing like two women to “stop” the brainwaves of a young man. – Rappler.com

Maria Isabel Garcia is a science writer. She has written two books, Science Solitaire and Twenty One Grams of Spirit and Seven Ounces of Desire. Her column appears every Friday and you can reach her at sciencesolitaire@gmail.com.