Our brains show distinctive patterns in the moments before we make mistakes, according to new research. This could one day lead to monitoring of those doing critical jobs, to prevent mistakes before they even happen.

Using MRI scans, Tom Eichele and colleagues found certain brain regions activated 30 seconds before errors were made by study subjects performing a simple repetitive task (research paper in PNAS). A number of news outlets note that previous studies have shown similar activity, but only seconds before errors.

Fellow author Stefan Debener, of the University of Southampton, likens this to the person switching to autopilot.

“The brain begins to economise, by investing less effort to complete the same task,” he says (BBC). “We see a reduction in activity in the prefrontal cortex. At the same time, we see an increase in activity in an area which is more active in states of rest, known as the Default Mode Network (DMN).”

Although the study was small, just 13 people, Eichele believes it shows the potential for catching errors before they occur.

“We might be able to build a device [that could be placed] on the heads of people that make these easy decisions,” he says (AFP). “We can measure the signal and give feedback to the user that well, your brain is in the state where your decisions are not going to be the right one.”

And it might not be too far away either.

“I cannot really judge how long this might take, maybe 10-15 years, and what the performance of these systems would be in terms of the sensitivity and specificity, but it at least does not seem technically impossible,” he says (Telegraph).

Image: Getty