Reconstructing Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In The Wall From A Person’s Brain Activity:
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley state it might not always be that way, which is good for people who can’t talk because of brain problems and, in the long run, for anyone who wants to work more efficiently.
Neuroscientists have made a copy of Pink Floyd’s famous song “Another Brick within the Wall, Part 1” by analyzing the brain waves of a person while hearing it.
The Independent says that a team from the University of California, Berkeley, figured out how to put the 1979 song back together by putting electrodes on the heads of epilepsy patients and playing the music while they had surgery.
Scientists Have Used A Patient’s Brain Waves To Put Together A Classic Pink Floyd Song:
Scientists were able to put together a famous Pink Floyd song by looking at the brain waves of people who were having surgery for epilepsy while hearing to the song.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, utilized artificial intelligence to interpret the brain patterns and recreate the 1979 hit song “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1.”
The neuroscientists then looked at how their brains were working. This let them figure out the beat of the song and pick out lines like “All in all, it’s just another brick in the wall.”
Who Looked Into This?
Dr. Robert Knight, a professor of neuroscience and psychology, as well as Dr. Ludovic Bellier, a graduate researcher in human cognitive neuroscience, looked at the electrical activity of 29 epileptic patients having brain surgery at Albany Medical Center within New York.
Electrodes were put upon the surface of the brains of the people who had agreed to take part in study. Pink Floyd’s 1979 song “Another Brick within the Wall, Part 1” played within the operating room as the patient had surgery to try to stop uncontrollable seizures.
Bellier was able to piece together the song from the electrical activity within each patient’s brain, according to a paper in the magazine PLoS Biology that came out on Tuesday.
The Work Of Bellier Will Be Utilized To Make Brain Machine Connections That Work Even Better:
Knight said that he and Bellier decided to look at how the brain processes rhythm instead of just speech because “music was universal.” “I think it came before language as well as was cross-cultural,” he said.
“When I proceed to other countries, I don’t know what people are saying to me within their language, but I can enjoy their music.”
“Music allows us to add semantics, extraction, prosody, emotion, as well as rhythm to language.” This is even more important.
Knight said that Bellier’s work will be used to make even better brain-machine connections, which disabled people such as the late Stephen Hawking could use to communicate, but not in a controlled way and maybe even just by thinking.
It Could Have An Effect On Stroke As Well As ALS Patients:
The two people also hope that the study will help explain why some people with speaking problems can sing yet not talk.
It could also help people who have had a stroke, have ALS, or have nonverbal apraxia, a disease in which a person can’t make the moves needed to speak.
For the study, researchers looked at recordings of brain activity from 29 patients at Albany Medical Center within New York State between 2009 and 2015. The people with epilepsy had a net of devices put in their brains as a component of their care.
All Of The Brain Activity Was Recorded With 2,668 Electrodes:
This gave the neuroscientists a rare chance to watch how their brains worked while they listening to music. All of the brain activity was recorded with 2,668 probes, as well as 347 of them were linked to the music.
Bellier said that the study would first be used to help people with medical needs. As technology for recording brain activity gets better, it might one day be possible to send thoughts through head monitors.
At the moment, these electrodes can be used to choose just one sound from a string of letters, yet it takes at least 20 seconds to figure out which letter was chosen. This makes conversation much too difficult.
Workers Can Use This Technology To Connect To A Computer And Write A Text Using Their Minds:
If the technology improves, it might help people who don’t have disabilities to connect with a computer and type what’s in their thoughts.
Bellier said, “It’s really regarding reducing friction and letting people just think about what they should do.” One example: “You could think, ‘Order my Uber,’ and you wouldn’t have to stop what you’re doing till your Uber arrives.”
For people who are worried about how the study could be used in the future, Knight and Bellier say that such things can’t be done without surgery right now. And the A.I. that was made to turn signs into sounds “just gives the mind a keyboard,” they say.
It’s Great To Have New Technology, Yet What About The Security Of Our Information?
Concerning the possibility of privacy issues, Bellier said he would be more worried regarding what Big Tech already knows about us because they watch and track our online behavior.
He also said that privacy problems can be solved. The information is hidden when a portable EEG is done on a patient. He said, “We’re on the edge of a lot of things, like the merging of neuroscience as well as computer engineering, and in so many ways, the sky’s the limit.”
