So this is a pretty crazy story: Scientists have developed a method of generating an image by analyzing the blood flow of a person’s brain!
One of the things that becomes apparent when you read the article closely is that the images they’ve extracted are actually based on an image the person was shown while they were doing the extraction.
As the image to the left shows, they were looking at the image of the text “neuron” and then the computer was able to determine the visual pattern.
On one hand, this is a far cry from printing out your imagination, but on the other hand, looking back over the acceleration of technology advances, especially in the recent decades, means that this could be just the black-and-white television version of what soon could be a full-blown mind’s-eye printer. It’s still amazing either way.
I have mused over the nature of mental images for some time now. As a visual artist, I would find it extremely handy to have crisp mental imagery which I could manipulate before sketching. I have on occasion, just as I was falling asleep (the half-awake/half-asleep hypnagogic state), had experiences like this so I know my mind is capable of it. However I cannot seem to control it consciously at all.
In fact, my mental imagery is quite vague and undefined; I rely heavily on the sketch stage to tease out the ideas in my mind’s eye. I usually get glimpses, notions of what I want something to look like, and need to work to get it in physical form. I wonder how effective this “mental imager” would work for someone like me who would be interested in getting a sketch concept out of my brain. For me it would be pretty useless since my mental imagery is so vague.
If you find these concepts interesting, you might enjoy the thread I started over at Ask Metafilter [How detailed is your mental imagery / mental visualization?] on the subject. Lots of good discussion and experience on the subject including the level of detail other people have with their mental imagery. Some in fact do have almost ‘photographic’ imaginations, but curiously it seemed the people in creative professions were the ones with the most vague mental imagery. Very interesting.
I’d be curious for readers to sound off in the comments section below about the degree of clarity in your mental imagery, and whether or not you are a visual artist.
via Pink Tentacle
by George Coghill
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Interesting post, George. I will often have vivid visual images when I’m half asleep, especially if I’ve been doing some visual activity just before going to bed, like working on a logo or trying to get elements in a layout or drawing to fit. Sometimes I can see the design elements twisting around like contortionists.
Love your blog!
Very interesting about the acrobatic design elements! I would say my mental imagery on the standard “awake” level is equivalent to enlarging a 72 dpi JPG file by 600% — I can kind of get an idea of what’s going on, but I could never use it as ‘reference’ to draw from.
And thanks for the kudos on the blog!