Researchers use brain scans to read people's memories

Scientists have used brain scans to read people's memories and work out where they were as they wandered around a virtual building.The landmark study by British researchers demonstrates that powerful imaging technology is increasingly able to extract our innermost thoughts.The feat prompted the team to call for an ethical debate on how brain imaging may be used in the future, and what safeguards can be put in place to protect people's privacy.The study was part of an investigation aimed at learning how memories are created, stored and recalled in a part of the brain called the hippocampus.By understanding the processes at work in the brain, scientists at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London hope to get a better grasp of how Alzheimer's disease and strokes can destroy our memories and find ways to rehabilitate patients.In the study, volunteers donned a virtual reality headset and were asked...

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