"We've never been able to step inside the structures of the brain and see it in this way," Gazzaley said. "It's biofeedback on the next level."
Being able to literally watch your own brain activity is not only fun, it has therapeutic potential. For example, people with traumatic brain injury or other neurological problems could visualize how their condition is affecting their brain activity, and learn to correct it.
So far, the team has focused on visualizing one brain at a time. But Rosedale foresees a day when two people could interact virtually in a way that telegraphs their inner state.
People often speak of interactions in virtual reality as being impoverished compared with those in the real world, Rosedale said. But, he asked, what if you could communicate in virtual reality in a way that makes real life impoverished?
