A Real Brain Scrambler

      No, this isn't a post about some brain puzzle or anything like that.  This post is related to the one on Science Friday.  A researcher named Rebecca Saxe is working on a project and is having some success using new technology to affect people's thoughts.  For real.  To accomplish this the subject requires a bunch of electronic equipment be used on the subjects' heads.  

                                         Dr. Rebecca Saxe

      Just like the work done in Kyoto, the work involves looking at the brain's activities and pinpointing its active zones during specific thought processes.  
      The title of the article about this is misleading, because it says, "Reading People's Thoughts."  This is because the 15 or so minute video is a lecture by Rebecca Saxe, wherein she talks about how people are always trying to read or understand what a person is thinking about any given subject matter.  Specifically she was discussing how people judge the motives of others.  She goes on to show via an accompanying video how this motive judging is natural for people, and she shows how this ability develops in a person over time. Through her machinery, she has pinpointed the exact spot in the brain where the judging of others occurs.  

       Here's where the twist happens.  She has developed a method that can scramble that specific portion of the brain.  It's like hitting the reset button.  Subjects to whom this brain scrambler was used would make judgments opposite those they would normally make.  

      In a test case subjects were asked to make a judgment of guilt or innocence of a person in a hypothetical matter.  Under the scrambler they made an opposite finding of guilt.  This machine has the ability to alter a person's moral judgments.  

      Now imagine this technology in the wrong hands.  I specifically imagine it being used on a jury, since that is sort of how it was applied in the experiments.  "We the jury find the defendant, ....what were we supposed to say again?" 
      Dr. Saxe also demonstrated how the machine could create involuntary muscle movements when applied to specific areas in the brain for motor control.  When being interviewed she was asked whether or not she was being contacted by the government or the military.  She said it happens on a regular basis, but she just ignores their pleas.