“It would be nice to see if we could possibly do this using EEG, if we could assess the thought alterations with EEG. It would be enormously cheaper. More widely used.”

The other thing to remember is that these volunteers told us they had suicidal ideation. That’s the gold-standard that the computer was learning on. But, as I noted above, people who admit they are having suicidal thoughts are the easy ones – we need ways to figure out who is suicidal and not telling us. Dr. Just pointed out that mind-reading, so to speak, is a long way off for a simple reason:

“If somebody didn’t want others to know what they are thinking, they can certainly block that method. They can not coorperate. I don’t think we have a way to get at people’s thoughts against their will.”

What this study does tell us is not just that there are differences in the brains of suicidal individuals and controls, but that those differences are discoverable with technology. Today’s multi-million dollar MRI scanner is tomorrow’s EEG and the next day’s ubiquitous IPhone attachment. But for now, we may need to change an old adage: the fMRI is the window to the soul.