英国一项最新研究显示，通过使用电脑程序分析人类大脑扫描结果，可以比较准确地推断出受试者当时的所思所想。这一成果将增进科学界对大脑记忆机制的理解。
英国伦敦大学学院研究人员在新一期《当代生物学》（Current Biology）杂志上报告说，利用功能磁共振成像技术扫描大脑活动，然后使用专门的电脑程序分析大脑中与记忆有关部位的活动特点，就能推断出受试者当时所想的内容。
测试中，首先播放3个时长都只有7秒的简单短片，内容分别是一名女性向邮筒投信，喝完饮料后将饮料杯放入垃圾桶，以及取走停放的自行车。受试者随后被要求分别回忆这些事件，扫描仪器会记录下相应的大脑活动变化，电脑程序则对大脑活动的特点进行分析对比，以此判断他们回忆的究竟是哪一个事件。结果显示，电脑程序的判断准确率可达到45%，高于33%的随意推断准确概率。
领导研究的埃莉诺马圭尔教授说，一个事件包含地理环境、目标对象、动作顺序等多方面信息，电脑程序判断正确率较高说明大脑在记忆这些复杂信息时是具备某种规律性和模式的。此外，他们在测试中还发现，不同受试者在记忆同一事件时大脑的活动特点也高度相似。
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美国每日科学网站相关报道（英文）
《当代生物学》发表论文摘要（英文）
Current Biology, Volume 20, Issue 6, 544-547, 11 March 2010 | Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved. | 10.1016/j.cub.2010.01.053
Decoding Individual Episodic Memory Traces in the Human Hippocampus
Martin J. Chadwick, Demis Hassabis, Nikolaus Weiskopf, Eleanor A. Maguire
Highlights
It is possible to decode specific episodic memory traces from fMRI activity
Individual memories can be decoded from fMRI activity in the human hippocampus (HC)
The HC contains significantly more episodic information than adjacent brain areas
Episodic information is localized to bilateral anterior and right posterior HC
Summary
In recent years, multivariate pattern analyses have been performed on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, permitting prediction of mental states from local patterns of blood oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal across voxels [1,2]. We previously demonstrated that it is possible to predict the position of individuals in a virtual-reality environment from the pattern of activity across voxels in the hippocampus [3]. Although this shows that spatial memories can be decoded, substantially more challenging, and arguably only possible to investigate in humans [4], is whether it is feasible to predict which complex everyday experience, or episodic memory, a person is recalling. Here we document for the first time that traces of individual rich episodic memories are detectable and distinguishable solely from the pattern of fMRI BOLD signals across voxels in the human hippocampus. In so doing, we uncovered a possible functional topography in the hippocampus, with preferential episodic processing by some hippocampal regions over others. Moreover, our results imply that the neuronal traces of episodic memories are stable (and thus predictable) even over many re-activations. Finally, our data provide further evidence for functional differentiation within the medial temporal lobe, in that we show the hippocampus contains significantly more episodic information than adjacent structures.
