It’s true, our brains can predict the future, scientists say

We already know that our visual brain is capable of wondrous things but new tests reveal that our visual cortex is even more remarkable being able to predict the future. It might not be as clairvoyant as science fiction fans wish it was but it’s amazing non the less. 

Ever played ball? Have you ever wondered how you were able to actually catch it? Scientists say that it was because our brains are able to predict the future and know exactly where the ball is going to be in space when it reaches us.

Neuroscientists from Radboud University developed an experiment that shows that our visual cortex, that brain area which determines what we perceive based on information coming from our eyes, is able to predict the future.

During the first stage, while in an fMRI machine, participants were shown a white dot moving quickly from the left to the right side of the screen. The brain activity pattern in their visual cortex proved remarkably similar to the visual dot stimulus that was shown on the screen.

In part two, the same participants had watched the moving dot sequence for a few minutes. But this time, occasionally, only the first dot on the left side of the screen was shown. Interestingly, the visual cortex’s activity pattern represented not only the starting point of the dot sequence – the one that was shown on screen – but also the remaining dots of the sequence.

“Our results show that we form expectations about upcoming events, and that the visual cortex can complete a sequence from only partial input,” said Matthias Ekman, fellow researchers from Radboud University’s Donders Institute and author of the study.

This seemingly automated response was the same when participants were subjected to another trial in which they had to concentrate not on the moving dot but on the letters in the background. The scans still showed a brain pattern similar to the dot’s sequence.

“Your visual cortex predicts these events, even when your attention is elsewhere” according to Ekman. “The fact that the event prediction is independent of the attentional state, suggests that it reflects an automatic process.”

So how can this be translated into real life situations, given their complexity? Scientists argue that the same process is going on while we look at a moving car before we decide cu cross the road. In record time, our visual cortex predicts the future location of the vehicle, giving us the information we need to safely cross the road.

The process is the same, scientists say, when dealing with any other moving object.

“Our visual cortex might constantly predict events happening all around us on a daily basis: the rotating arms of a windmill, or how to catch the ball that is moving towards us.”

In the second part of their study, researchers will be focusing on what other brain areas are involved in the process of predicting the future. They have reasons to believe that the hippocampus, the brain area linked to memory, plays a vital role in the process.