First Brain-to-Brain Interface Could Revolutionize Neuroscience | IFLScience

2 Comments

1. September 24, 2015 at 8:54 am

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Boffins show off brain-link’s light bulb moment
   I can SEE what you’re thinking … well, not quite
   http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/24/boffins_show_off_brainlinks_light_bulb_moment/

   The world has come a step closer to eliminating privacy altogether, with University of Washington boffins claiming the most sophisticated brain-to-brain link so far demonstrated.

   Thankfully, while it’s hailed as a “mind reading” link, the demonstration only lets people transmit a binary yes-or-no, with the university’s Andrea Stocco connecting volunteers to play a question-and-answer game over their brain-to-brain connection.

   Rather than a spooky sci-fi know-what-you-are-thinking, a “yes/no” response from one person was turned into a stimulation that made someone else see a phosphor blob flash in front of their eyes.

   The game “uses conscious experiences through signals that are experienced visually, and it requires two people to collaborate”, Stocco explains in the university’s media release.

   In the experiment, one volunteer was connected to an EEG machine recording their brain’s electrical activity, while the volunteer at the other end of the link had a magnetic coil behind their head.

   Stocco has previously demonstrated a brain-to-brain remote control hat, which is possibly still more spooky than the current work.

   Boffin snatches control of colleague’s BODY with remote control BRAIN HAT
   No rude gestures, though, this is SCIENCE
   http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/28/boffins_build_braintobrain_interface_for_remote_control_humans/

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2. September 24, 2015 at 1:30 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Boffins make brain-to-brain direct communication breakthrough
   So long as you just want to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’, it’s fine
   http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/24/brain_to_brain_communication_breakthrough/

   University of Washington (UW) researchers have entered the realm of sci-fi (sort of), and achieved brain-to-brain direct communication. Sadly, these mind-reading superpowers are limited to responding to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions.

   Researchers hooked one person up to an electroencephalography (EEG) machine that records electrical brain activity. That subject, or “respondent”, is shown a picture of an object.

   The second participant, the “inquirer” then sends questions, and the respondent answers “yes” or “no” by focusing on one of two LED lights flashing at different frequencies.

   Both answers send a signal to the inquirer via the internet that activate a magnetic coil positioned behind the inquirer’s head. But only a “yes” answer generates a response intense enough to stimulate the visual cortex and cause the inquirer to see a flash of light known as a phosphene.

   “This is the most complex brain-to-brain experiment, I think, that’s been done to date in humans,” said lead author Andrea Stocco from UW’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences. “It uses conscious experiences through signals that are experienced visually, and it requires two people to collaborate.”

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