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The idea of a machine that can read your mind sounds more like science fiction than actual science.

After all, what could be more private and inaccessible to the outside world than what goes on in your own head?

But in recent years, scientists have been coming closer to making this fantastical seeming idea into reality.

They've developed brain scanning tools and methods that can interpret brain activity, and from that activity, decode many aspects of what people are thinking,

in essence reading their minds. So how does this technology work? How do scientists translate

patterns of brain activity into thoughts? What kinds of thoughts can they decode? How advanced

are these methods? And what are the limitations?

What research questions can they help scientists to answer? What practical and moral questions

does its research raise? And where might it be going in the future?

Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological Association

that examines the links between psychological science and everyday life. I'm Kim Mills.

My guest today is Dr. Kenneth Norman, a professor of psychology and neuroscience and chair of the psychology department

at Princeton University.

In his lab, the Princeton Computational Memory Lab, he and his colleagues developed new methods

to analyze brain scans.

...