“The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains.” Rajesh Rao and Andrea Stocco have performed the first human brain-to-brain interface demonstration using electrical brain recordings and a form of magnetic stimulation. Rao played a game with his mind and imagined his right finger hitting the ‘fire’ button. In a different room Stocco involuntarily moved his right index finger to hit the button. While researchers at Duke University have demonstrated brain-to-brain communication between two rats, and Harvard researchers have demonstrated it between a human and a rat, Rao and Stocco believe this is the first demonstration of human-to-human brain interfacing. “The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains,” Stocco said. “We want to take the knowledge of a brain and transmit it directly from brain to brain.” The technologies used by the researchers for recording and stimulating the brain are both well-known. Electroencephalography, or EEG, is routinely used by clinicians and researchers to record brain activity noninvasively from the scalp. Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a noninvasive way of delivering stimulation to the brain to elicit a response. Its effect depends on where the coil is placed; in this case, it was placed directly over the brain region that controls a person’s right hand. By activating these neurons, the stimulation convinced the brain that it needed to move the right hand.
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 02:52:30 +0000
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