Very interesting news today, as Japanese scientists published a paper in Neuron discussing the reconstruction of images directly from the human brain using fMRI.  It does seem like neurology is making true progress, despite the popular notion that “we can never understand the human brain.” The future consequences of research like this may be controversial, but it’s the inevitable price of progress. Pink Tentacle covered this story along with a more technical overview by Brain Windows.

Visual Image Reconstruction from Human Brain Activity using a Combination of Multiscale Local Image Decoders.
Yoichi Miyawaki, Hajime Uchida, Okito Yamashita, Masa-aki Sato, Yusuke Morito, Hiroki C. Tanabe, Norihiro Sadato, Yukiyasu Kamitani.
Neuron – 10 December 2008 (Vol. 60, Issue 5, pp. 915-929)