Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a newly developed computer can read a person's thoughts and translate them into complete sentences, according to a report published Monday in the British scientific journal Nature Neuroscience.

The researchers said that the "decoder" was developed to read the activity of the person's brain, and translate what he wants to say into an understandable language.

Comments from the study's senior author Jerry Tang, of the University of Texas at Austin, reported by United Press International:

• "We hope this technology will help people who have lost the ability to speak due to injuries, such as strokes."

• "We ran our decoder on brain responses, asking a person to imagine they were telling stories or giving responses, while they were watching silent movies."

• "We found that the decoder is able to recover the essence of what the user was imagining or seeing, and translate it."

According to the researchers, the decoder is able to capture what a person is thinking, though not always in exact words.

For example, the device translated the idea: "I don't have a driver's license yet," into the words: "I haven't started learning to drive yet."

Tang explained that the technology is not at the stage where it can be used with anyone, as the development of the program required its use at least 16 hours on each of the three people involved in the research.

He also pointed out that "one person's brain readings cannot be applied to another  person  , and the actual examination also involves the person's cooperation, and can be distorted by simple mental tasks that distort the participant's focus."

The technology has raised concerns about people's "mental privacy" and what they think, prompting Tang and his team to take action to issue a warning about it.

"All of this can change as technology improves, so we think it's important to continue researching the privacy implications of decoding the brain, and enacting policies that protect everyone's mental privacy," Tang said.