Do You Hear the Basketball?

A new study has found that sounds and images are decoded by the brain in a similar way

A new study has found that sounds and images are decoded by the brain in a similar way. Study participants had their brains scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI), a non-invasive form of brain mapping used to determine how the brain recognises different characteristics in musical instruments, words from conversations or environmental sounds. It was discovered that the brain uses the same strategy to encode sounds that it uses to encode different images. This may make it easier for people to combine sounds and images that belong to the same object, such as the dribbling of a basketball. The next step for the researchers is to determine exactly how the brain distinguishes between rock drum beats and the strings of a symphony, or betwixt a French conversation and an English one. If researchers can reconstruct a song a person has heard according to an FMRI reading, we’re not far from being able to record brain patterns during sleep and reconstruct dreams.