The electrical outputs of the brain contain massive amounts of information that could be a powerful resource if we could fully tap into it. Our brain processes things we see before any conscious recognition of those images comes to bear. While we can already measure electromagnetic activity with EEGand MEG, both of these techniques are limited.
A new method developed in the lab of physics professor Srinivas Sridhar could measure the brain’s activity to, for example, detect threatening patterns in a drone pilot’s field of vision or track the brain’s response to neurological drugs. Other possible applications range from emotion analysis to neuromarketing, whereby researchers examine the unconscious response to advertisements.