Scientists Decode Neurons to Read Monkeys’ Minds

Over the course of the past past 30 years, researchers have learned that clear information can be gathered by decoding the activity of large populations of neurons. Now, scientists at Washington University in St. Louis who were decoding the brain activity of monkeys as they reached around an obstacle to touch a target have achieved two remarkable results.

The first results was expected: They demonstrated that multiple parameters can be embedded in the firing rate of a single neuron and that certain types of parameters are encoded only if needed to solve the task at hand. The second result was a surprise: They found that the population vectors could unveil different planning strategies, allowing the scientists, in effect, to read the monkeys’ minds. For more information, click here to read the full release.