Most of us remember only a tiny fraction of our dreams - but that could soon change.
Scientists predict that we could soon use computers to "see" what we have dreamed about - and perhaps even record dreams to watch the next day.
Psychiatrists at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany think have already demonstrated that brain scanners can see into the dreams of "lucid dreamers" - people who can control their dreams.
It means that recent breakthroughs in "reading" the thoughts of waking subjects using brain monitors could apply to dreamers too.
The Planck institute scientists proved that scans of "lucid dreamers" dreams looked the same as scans of their brain when they do the same thing while conscious.
The research, published in Current Biology, could be used with recently demonstrated "reconstruction" technology to create moving images of people's dreams.
The lucid dreamers agreed to move their eyes and hands from side to side to show the researchers the moments they "controlled" their dreams to dream about clutching a hand.
The scientists monitored the dreamers with both magnetic resonance imaging and near-infrared spectroscopy to see patterns of heat in their subject's heads, which gives a picture of brain activity.
The dreamers did not clench their hands while they dreamt - but the scans of their brains showed identical brain activity when they clenched a real hand, and when they clenched a dream hand.
The discovery paves the way to use "reconstruction" technology to build images of people's dreams.
So far, the Planck institute scientists have reconstructed just two dreams. The number of scanners, and the difficulty of controlling dreams, has meant that the experiment was extremely difficult.






据英国《每日邮报》10月28日报道，我们大部分人只能记得自己所做梦的一些片段，但这种状况有望改变。
科学家预测，我们可能很快将通过计算机看到自己的梦，说不定还能把前一天的梦录下来供第二天观看。

德国慕尼黑马普研究所的精神病专家们认为大脑扫描仪已经被证实可以观察到"清醒梦"--指能够控制自己梦境的人所做的梦。

这意味着利用大脑监视器读取清醒思想的方法也适用于读取梦境。

普朗克研究所的科学家证实了受试者"清醒梦"的扫描图像与他们在进行有意识行为时的大脑扫描图像是一样的。

该研究发表在当代生物学上，它能利用最新的"重组"技术创建人类梦境的动态图像。


"清醒梦"受试者在梦到自己握着一只手的时候，会以眼球左右移动和双手来回摆动的方式告知研究人员。

科学家们同时利用功能性核磁共振成像和近红外光谱技术来监测受试者，观察他们大脑的升温模式，以此获得大脑的活动图像。

受试者在做梦的同时并未握拳，但是大脑扫描图像显示出他们在清醒时握拳与梦到握拳时的大脑活动完全相同。

该发现为使用 "重建"技术来创建人类的梦境图像铺平了道路。

到目前为止，普朗克研究所的科学家们已经重建了两组梦境。需要扫描仪的数量以及梦境控制的难度都使得实施该实验相当困难。

• institute [´institju:t] n.学院 vt.建立；设置 (初中英语单词)
• research [ri´sə:tʃ] n.&vi.调查；探究；研究 (初中英语单词)
• clench [klentʃ] v.握(拳头)；捏紧 (初中英语单词)
• extremely [ik´stri:mli] ad.极端地；非常地 (初中英语单词)
• fraction [´frækʃən] n.小部分；一点儿 (高中英语单词)
• predict [pri´dikt] v.预言；预告；预示 (高中英语单词)
• identical [ai´dentikəl] a.完全相同的 (高中英语单词)
• biology [bai´ɔlədʒi] n.生物学，生态学 (英语四级单词)
• magnetic [mæg´netik] a.磁(性)的 (英语四级单词)
• munich [´mju:nik] n.慕尼黑 (英语六级单词)