London - Scientists have come a step closer to reading dreams after discovering how to predict the images in the heads of napping volunteers.
Using a brain scanner, Japanese researchers were able to identify broad topics of what was being seen in the dreams with 60 percent accuracy.
The experiment involved three volunteers sleeping in a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine. After gathering around 200 dream reports from each subject, the data was used to develop a computer program to recognise the brain activity associated with different types of dream image.
In a second round of tests, the researchers, led by Dr Yuki Kamitani from the Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, successfully predicted what kind of images were being dreamed about with 60 percent accuracy.
US neuroscientist Dr Robert Stickgold, from Harvard Medical School, described the study as “stunning in its detail and success”.
He told the journal Science: “This is the first real demonstration of the brain basis of dream content.
“Up until this moment, there were no grounds on which to say we don’t just make up our dreams when we wake up.” - Daily Mail