Learning high-performance tasks with no conscious effort may soon be possible

[Bosonic]

New research published today in the journal Science suggests it may be possible to use brain technology to learn to play a piano, reduce mental stress or hit a curve ball with little or no conscious effort. It's the kind of thing seen in Hollywood's "Matrix" franchise.

Experiments conducted at Boston University (BU) and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, recently demonstrated that through a person's visual cortex, researchers could use decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to induce brain activity patterns to match a previously known target state and thereby improve performance on visual tasks.

Think of a person watching a computer screen and having his or her brain patterns modified to match those of a high-performing athlete or modified to recuperate from an accident or disease. Though preliminary, researchers say such possibilities may exist in the future.

"Adult early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning," said lead author and BU neuroscientist Takeo Watanabe of the part of the brain analyzed in the study.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-high-performance-tasks-conscious-effort-video.html

[tridim]

1. I doubt they'll ever be able to implant creativity. Thank gawd.

[TheMadMonk]

2. No, this is more about "teaching" us to do those things we do without...

...thinking about them:- Ride a bike, drive a car, knit a sweater, even simply stand and walk without falling, all while carrying on a conversation about a subject entirely unreated to the activity we're performing.

And while this "trick" might get us up on two wheels with a minimum of lost skin, it WILL NOT, no way, no how, ever automatically turn you or I into an Olympic grade cyclist.

In fact, I suspect the greatest gain from this, would be in turning it on its head, and using it to REMOVE undesirable habitual behaviours.

[jkent26943xs]

4. agreed

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Trinity

'I need a pilot program for a B-2 12 helicopter.'

Operator....'Ok you got it'