Discussion on:

For the first time, dreams are read by a brain scanner

This tech is potentially useful and very scary and the scarier the tech more more watchful we have to be over the people using it. Every advance in technology can be misused. The trouble with blaming technology is that it lets the abusers off the hook. We have to fight to keep ALL techology from violating our civil and moral rights but just as guns don't kill people, this tech won't read people's minds, people will.

I thought the study didn't actually show what the person was dreaming, so it couldn't actually read their mind?

When I dream about flying, does that "involve activity in the regions of the brain that are relevant to the dream content???? And if so... what would happen if I could activate this region while awake? Hmmm....

Don't you think...

"For the first time, dreams are read by a brain scanner"

...should really have been...

"For the first time, dreaming brain activity identified by a brain scanner"

...but who would click on it then?

Moreover, I am quite dubious of the claim...

"Recently neuroscientists have been able to dig deeper and even made a movie of what images our minds create when shown movie clips."

...and seem to recall this being yet another Smart Planet Hype Headline. Could it be that you've been taken in by your own hyperbole. I notice no link to this claim.

...along the same lines as any other animated scan sequence we've seen. NOT an image of the imagery our minds generate when they dream.

And yes, "Smart Planet" HAS been taken in by their own hyperbole.

Are you always so negative? I wish you will find a more positive outlook.

Just annoyed by hype, and as long as I'm being negative, some of the other commenters here apparently didn't even read past the headline, which is even more annoying!

I don't intend for this to be harsh towards you, but nobody cares if you are annoyed. find something useful to talk about or worth reading. Be aware of your audience. And you have no knowledge of what they read. Big deal, you may have been more aware of a headline than other commenters; would you like a reward, or are you grading them?

No worry I: sleep with titanium helmet... No sneeky dream scans with my brain, ha ha.

Now I'm definitely making my wife take the GE Lightspeed 16 CT scanning chamber out of the bedroom!!!

And when the government gets their hands on this technology there will be the "Dream Police". Been saying this for years.....

This Research could lead to better understandings of the brain???s function if not a dream recorder. Better brain-machine interfaces are the great promise for those trying to develop systems to enable incommunicative people, such as those with locked-in syndrome, to communicate again. And as brain sensor technology provides higher resolutions and becomes less invasive, a system that can identify and respond to abstract concepts at the neural level could be the basis for thought-controlled machines in the future.

Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India
E-mail: anumakonda.jagadeesh@gmail.com

Your comment shows intelligence.

I have yet to read the scientific journal, but they really should use Narcoleptics for this study. Narcoleptics will usually have a dream in the first 15 minutes of sleep and it only takes them 5- 6 minutes to go to sleep. They also have Hypnagogic hallucinations in the first part of their screwed up sleep stage. They could compare dreams to these types of hallucinations and see how much more active or not the hassucinations are.

You are correct, that would be an excellent idea.

Very interesting. Makes me wonder what all we will and can learn from dreams. I wouldn't want anyone scanning my dreams though. Sometimes I have dreams of things that actually happen the next day, no joke. They say Chief Crazy Horse lived in the dream world. I've read dreams are a way for our mind to solve problems and plan, Will be interesting to see the knowledge we can gain from this scanner."Lucid dreamers can tell when they are dreaming", I guess I am a lucid dreamer, I usually have complete control in my dreams and I can pick them back up where I left off during the dream. Dreams change with age though, alcohol or other substance intake can have an impact on dreams. When I was looking at which Smartplanet article on my email to read I chose this one, as it was loading I thought, I bet Boonsri Dickinson wrote that, funny it was true. I hate to get back on the left hand/right brain hemisphere wagon, but Since lefties are more dominant in the right hemisphere of their brains, does this mean a lefty's dream scan or dreams may be different than a right handed person?