Hi, we're here from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.

I'm Cody Gough.

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

Today you learn about a breakthrough technology that can translate thought into speech, a Navy SEALs

method for mental toughness,

and why airplane seat belts are the way they are.

Buckle up.

We're going to satisfy some curiosity.

For the first time ever, scientists

have taught an algorithm to translate thoughts into recognizable speech.

Yeah, researchers at Columbia University and Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine have made human thoughts audible.

And this groundbreaking research has big implications for medicine.

The breakthrough relies on what's called a vocoder.

That's the same technology that powers our robot butlers like Alexa and Siri.

A vocoder is just a computer algorithm that can synthesize human speech.

And in this case, the research team taught such an algorithm to recognize and

translate brainwave patterns in a person's auditory cortex into speech.

The auditory cortex is the part of the brain that's activated when we speak and listen and,

importantly, when we imagine speaking and listening.

In other words, when we think.

I'm oversimplifying this a little since the definition of thought is actually an open philosophical question,

but in the context of this study I'm talking about what's called inner speech or language we've actively called to mind.

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