To know more about the mind-meld technology, read the recent edition of prestigious journal PLOS One.
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The team said that their research had limits but that they hope to continue these experiments in the future.
Researchers said this is the first demonstration that a non-invasive brain-to-brain interface (BBI) can be used to allow one human to guess what is on the mind of another human through an interactive question-and-answering paradigm similar to the “20 Questions” game. One of the participants – the “respondent” – located a mile away was outfitted with a cap connected to an electroencephalograph (EEG), which picks up signals from the brain and records brain activity.
The player wearing the electrode cap picked an object, and the player wearing the electric coil asked a series of questions to try to guess the object. After receiving a question, the respondent answers by looking at one of two flashing LED lights mounted on the monitor.
Despite the fact that taking advantage of this concept on a larger scale would require major financial investments in terms of the gear and computers used to send the EEG-like signals, Stocco is pleased with the potential that the results offer. Rajesh Rao, a computer-science professor, tried to transmit his brain signal to Stocco. But only a “yes” answer generated a response intense enough to stimulate the visual cortex and caused the inquirer to see a flash of light known as a “phosphene”.
You’ve played twenty questions before, right? “Some saw lightning bolts, blobs or shapes”. The researchers are exploring various ways to decode complex brain processes and interactions. In theory, they knew that it could be possible. In other words, they saw the visual interruption, and interpreted it as a “yes”.
The participants were able to guess the objects correctly in 72 percent of the real rounds, compared to only 18 percent of the control rounds. In that study from Harvard University, the brain signal from the human was directed towards the motor cortex of a sleeping rat, causing the rodent to move its tail.
As with previous experiments conducted by Stocco and his team, the experiment takes place between people in separate locations.
This is not the first time a brain-to-brain connection was demonstrated, but it’s the first time a true telepathic communication was established and demonstrated. However, some neuroscientists dismissed the experiment as a publicity stunt.
“While the flashing lights are signals that we’re putting into the brain, those parts of the brain are doing a million other things at any given time too”, Prat says. Of course, that is the stuff of dreams and science-fiction flicks: in the real world, the closest that scientists have come to establishing direct communication between brains involves an extremely convoluted apparatus and would take hours to transmit the amount of information you typically exchange in a 2-minute conversation. According to Andrea Stocco, one of the researchers behind the study, “it uses unconscious experiences through signals that are experienced visually and it requires two people to collaborate”.
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Stocco said that the experiment could hold more applications for science and medicine.
