Using electrodes they found the area of the brain that is involved in creating the sounds. They then discovered that each of these sounds has its own signal which they believe could eventually allow a computer program to read what people want to say by the power of their thoughts.
The mind-reading research was undertaken by a team from the centre for Innovation in Neuroscience and Technology at the University of Washington, led by is director, Eric Leuthardt.
They studied four people who suffered from severe epilepsy who each had 64 electrodes implanted into their heads. The original reason for this was an attempt to try to find the cause of their epilepsy but Leuthardt also monitored the areas of the brain where speech is formed.
The subjects were asked to make four repeated sounds - 'oo', 'ah', 'eh', and 'ee'.
The team then monitored the Wenicke's and Broca's areas of the brain for signals related to speech formation.
The scientists were then able to pick out the corresponding electrical signals, and while these four signals will not be enough to form sentences, further research could lead to this becoming possible.
"I'm not going to say that I can fully read someone's mind. Icant'. But I have evidence now that it is possible," Leuthardt said.
During his study, Leuthardt also found that the brain generates a signal when people just thingk about the sounds. This has led to the implication that doctors could one day read people's private thoughts as well as what they want to say.
The research was published in the Journal of Neural Engineering.
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