Why hasn't anyone made a reciever to interpret brain waves ?

Question

Since brain waves are electromagnetic waves, why hasn't anyone invented something that can recieve these waves and translate them (in essence reading someone's thoughts) ?

Answer 1

The neurons sure do communicate using electrical impulses, but i don't think they occur in a simple way in order to sustain an EM wave.
Forget the EM wave, humans are yet to figure out how exactly the way neurons fire is related to the thoughts that correspond to them. It is much more complex than anything humans know about the brain so far.
To my knowledge, the most thats happening in reading thoughts right now is using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (a technique used to visualize which parts of the brain receive increased blood flow) to see which areas of the brain light up when 'different kinds of thoughts' are going on.
& Spenix, we needn't worry, as its next to certain that we'll never see any decent contraption that can read thoughts this century atleast.

Answer 2

The brain works by electrochemical signals firing between neurons. So the signals are traveling through physical pathways. It's not like your brain is sending out radio signals between parts of itself.

However, it is possible to observe the firing of particular neurons or groups of them. Researchers do this on a regular basis and we learn many things by it. Mirror neurons in monkeys fire when they see someone tough their face with their hand. The mirror neurons stimulate the motor areas of the brain and motivate the monkey to touch his own face with his hand.

It is not physically easy to monitor the actions of neurons because 1. they are extraordinarily tiny 2. they are all packed very densely inside an extremely delicate brain 3. they only transmit extremely weak signals which require very sensitive and exacting techniques to snoop on them 4. there are unbelievably large numbers of neurons in the brain and there are even more connections between them, it would be very, very, very hard to monitor all this activity, far beyond the ability of the most powerful multi-million supercomputers.

Nobody in the world has a very good understanding of how to get from patterns of neuron activity to what a person is thinking. So even if you could snoop on all neuronal activity in a brain, which nobody can do, we don't know how to interpret what all these patterns and signals mean.

"Why hasn't anyone made a receiver to interpret brain waves ?"
It would be kind of like giving someone a radio receiver and asking them to put it near the processor in your computer and asking them to tell you what the photoshop drawing you are making is of.

Answer 3

sure something like that the "code" is so complicated that on EEGs and MRIs the development of in basic terms the main ordinary emotions have been replicated.Neuroanatomic purposes are rather mapped out.all of us understand extra approximately area than the human strategies.

Answer 4

I hope we never develop that technology

Answer 5

because we just don't know enough to do that yet.