1975 SRI feasibility study on EEG thought reading
Allen L. Barker
[In the first item below I am forwarding some excerpts from a 1975 SRI
feasibility study on "thought reading" via EEG analysis. As far as I
know, no studies like it were published (funded?) for years after the
mid-70s, when a few researchers reported on preliminary experiments. In
the mid to late 90s a few more studies appeared, with results very much
like those reported back in the 70s. The technology is much advanced
now, both in computer processing and in sensors. What happened in all
those "dark" years?
Following the excerpts I have included references to some other articles
by Pinneo, one of the authors of the feasibility study, along with some
comments. At the end I have included a couple of links to an article by
Alex Constantine relating to research at SRI and some discussion of that
article.]
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FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR DESIGN OF A BIOCYBERNETIC COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
Stanford Research Institute
Dr L R Pinneo and Mr D J Hall
Originally published: August 1975
Published nowadays by:
U.S. Department of Commerce
National Technical Information Service
http://www.ntis.gov
NTIS document ref ADA017405
Page 1, second paragraph of SUMMARY:
"The research was predicated on existing evidence that verbal ideas or
thoughts are subvocally represented in the muscles of the of the vocal
apparatus. If the patterns of this muscle activity are at all similar to
those involved in normal overt speech, a reasonable assumption is that
electrical activity of the brain during verbal thinking may be similar to
that during overt speech."
Page3, second paragraph, numbered (5):
"It was determined that, if all the sources of error could be eliminated,
significant gains in correct word classification using biological responses
would be achieved (perhaps approaching 90% or better)."
Page 3, penultimate paragraph:
"EEG responses for covert speech mimicked those of overt speech for the same
subject, electrode and spoken word. When sources of error were reduced as
much as possible, correct computer classification rates ranged from 52 to
72%, which was significant at p < 0.001. We conclude that both overt and
covert speech can be identified by computer classification of
electrophysiological responses and that a practical biocybernetic
communication system is feasible, provided that sources of error can be
removed."
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Here are some references to other articles by Pinneo. The following
Mediaeko report lists a similar reference (and has other good references,
as well):
Brain Transmitters What They Are and How They Are Used
http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/brain6.htm
[...]
“Persistent EEG Patterns Associated with Overt and Covert Speech.”
Lawrence R. Pinneo. Neurophysiology Program. Menlo Park, California:
Stanford Research Institute, 1975.
[...]
I also looked on PubMed. I haven't hunted down the following article, but
it should be easy to find in a college library. The title sounds "promising":
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=4960224&dopt=Abstract
Nature. 1966 Aug 13;211(50):705-8.
Electrical control of behaviour by programmed stimulation of the brain.
Pinneo LR.
Here is a reference to a 1972 article on a brain prosthesis:
Stroke. 1972 Jan-Feb;3(1):16-26.
Experimental brain prosthesis for stroke.
Pinneo LR, Kaplan JN, Elpel EA, Reynolds PC, Glick JH.
This next one is interesting for who he wrote it with. RG Heath is infamous
for his brain implant studies. Some of these studies were ethically
questionable: see Colin Ross' BLUEBIRD book, for example. Studies on mental
patients with electrodes implanted in their brains who were given hallucinogens,
the use of implants and brain stimulation to try to turn homosexuals into
heterosexuals, giving women orgasms by brain stimulation, that sort of thing.
In 1995, Heath acknowledged to Ross' assistant that he had received CIA funding.
J Neurol Sci. 1967 Sep-Oct;5(2):303-14.
Human visual system activity and perception of intermittent light stimuli.
Pinneo LR, Heath RG.
The link below contains some excerpts from an article by Heath. The first
item on the page is an unsubstantiated item that came out on the internet a few
years ago; if it were real it would be something, but it would be hard to
substantiate even on the off chance that it were. It is not unprecedented at
all, though, and in fact similar plans were almost put through in California in
the early 70s. For information about that, see this page about the UCLA
Violence Project: http://www.datafilter.com/mc/uclaViolenceProject.html.
Anyway, the Heath excerpts are the second item on the following page:
STEREOTAXIC IMPLANTATION OF ELECTRODES IN THE HUMAN BRAIN
A METHOD FOR LONG-TERM STUDY AND TREATMENT
http://members.tripod.com/~mdars/KKasten2.htm
One more article by Pinneo, with a vague title:
Psychol Rev. 1966 May;73(3):242-7.
On noise in the nervous system.
Pinneo LR.
The comments above are heavy on the implants, but there are also many newer
remote sensing technologies. For further information, see my web pages
Remote Monitoring and Thought Inference
http://www.datafilter.com/mc/thoughtInference.html
Implants
http://www.datafilter.com/mc/implants.html
Finally, here are a couple of links about SRI, just FYI. The first is by
Alex Constantine, and the second contains some discussion about Constantine's
article. You can read these and decide for yourself; I don't want to be
slimed by it:
http://mindcontrolforums.com/alex-sri.htm
http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/hambone/debate.html
--
Mind Control: TT&P ==> http://www.datafilter.com/mc
Home page: http://www.datafilter.com/alb
Allen Barker