Brainprint: Your Mind’s Reaction to Certain Words Could Be Your Password

We ’ve heard a lot about how our body — our faces , our irises , even ourheartbeats — willreplace countersign . Now , a chemical group of neuroscientists are adding another body part to that list : the genius . Or more specifically , the brain ’s reply to certain words .

Brainprint is the name of a study fromNeurocomputingfeatured onNew ScientistandEngadgetthis hebdomad author by a group of research worker from the Basque Center for Cognition and Binghamton University . It ’s an appropriate title , since the paper discover how the research worker were able to reliably identify subjects ’ brains by watching how they reacted to certain words . In other run-in , it ’s like a fingerprint for your brainiac signals .

Here ’s how the field of study work . A group of 45 participant each don the three electrodes necessary to carry out a regular EEG mental test , and then were read heaps of acronyms . The researchers recorded the nous ’s reaction to each chemical group of letters , focalize on the part of the brainpower that ’s related to semantic signification . New Scientist has a good explanationof this region ’s role in language processing :

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These signal are generated when a person accesses their semantic memories . While occasional memories record our experience , semantic memory simply tape the import of particular words . The collection of meanings that we connect with words can subtly differ from somebody to person , providing an individual pattern .

The team find that they were able-bodied to parse a pattern through all of the mentality noise that cease up staying very consistent — up to 94 % accuracy — even over time . They tested participants over six months , and the semantic - base signals stayed very similar , even month after .

So , does this intend you ’ll be using your thought to log into your computer , or that we ’ll be hearing about retentivity hacking soon ? Not exactly — for one thing , this method still need you to slap electrode to your noggin to work . But it does prove that the signals our brains send are unique to us — a form of cognitive fingerprint , or as they call it , brainprint — that , down the road , could mean the end of entering a thole or suffer your face scan .

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At the same time , this variety of security system raises interesting , questioning privacy questions . Would you want your employer to get laid your unique brainprint ? Would it be potential tofake another ’s brainprintby falsify your own thoughts ? Or would we give up our unique neuro - patterns for the sake of convenience ?

[ New Scientist , h / tEngadget ]

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