Visual Perceptual Learning via Inception

Well, it looks like Chris Nolan might have been on to something: it appears that learning via inception may actually be possible.  

In this experiment, Shibata et al. used an fMRI online-feedback method to induce visual perceptual learning (VPL) in the absence of real and specific target stimuli.  This online-feedback method recorded "activation patterns corresponding to the pattern evoked by the presentation of a real and specific target orientation stimulus" in order to repeatedly induce similar patterns in participants without their knowledge of what was being learned and without external stimulus presentation.  Participants were subsequently able to perform better in an orientation discrimination task, demonstrating a causal link between induced specific neural activity patterns and VPL.

It’s hard to read this paper without wanting to shout "Inception!", but even the researchers seem to have realized this implication.  In the final paragraph, they say that this fMRI neurofeedback method can "'incept' a person to acquire new learning, skills, or memory."  I personally hesitate in touting the implications of this paper for the types of learning the authors note, however.  It would seem that the ability to "incept" such learning depends on the plasticity of the region of the adult cortex in question, and it is an open question—perhaps out of my own ignorance—as to how plastic certain cortical areas actually are.

The application of this method to other areas of the brain, if possible, would carry significant ethical ramifications: while it would certainly be admirable to augment the brain in such a way that a person could learn more, it could feasibly be used to incept certain maleficent ideas into participants.  Nonetheless, this study is a fascinating example of the possible uses of fMRI technology to do more than simply record brain data.