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Researchers link human brains

A non-invasive brain-to-brain interface successfully allowed two people in separate locations to share thoughts.
A non-invasive brain-to-brain interface successfully allowed two people in separate locations to share thoughts.

Brains are electrical systems. They generate electrical impulses.

So – can they read electrical impulses sent directly from another brain?

Apparently yes, according to new research conducted at the University of Washington.

Researchers linked the brains of five pairs of participants using electroencephalography (EEG) machines. Each pair was separated by distance, playing a game of 20 questions over the internet.

“One was asked to think of an object, and the other was told to ask questions,” lead study author Andrea Stocco – an assistant professor of psychology at U.W. – said in an interview with Yahoo Canada.

“Questions could be asked through the computer, but the answers only occurred through a brain-to-brain interface (BBI). Basically, a computer analyzed the brain waves of the respondent, detected if the answer was yes or no, and translated the answer into a visual signal that was delivered to the second participant.”

Stocco explained that “yes” answers would generate visual response within the brain. The receiving participant would then answer yes or no, based on whether the signal was perceived.

“The participant who asked the questions was able to guess the object the other participant was thinking about over 70 per cent of the time,” he enthused.

“When the single answers are counted independently, participants were 94 per cent accurate. That's basically as good as if they were using English.”

No, we’re not talking about directly reading another person’s mind. But people can apparently read signals placed into their minds by the mind of someone else.

“We wanted to test how viable BBIs were for collaborative and interactive tasks,” said Stocco.

“20 Questions was a simple paradigm that had most of the back and forth demands of collaborative tasks, but was also simple and controlled enough for experimental purposes.

Stocco added that the biggest surprise emerging from the results is simply how well it worked.
Much better than we expected,” he smiled.

He noted it is still a bit too early to be thinking about the larger implications of such communication. The scientific mapping of this intriguing terrain has only barely begun

“Much work still needs to be done, but we are slowly progressing towards realistic BBIs,” Stocco stated.

“It was important for us to show that progress is being made. And, in fact, the number of bits transferred is steadily increasing from experiment to experiment.”

And practical applications?

“So far, very little. But as soon as we can transfer more complex knowledge, BBIs could become useful for patients with disabilities, of for patients undergoing neuro-rehabilitation.”

We’re still a long way away, then, from being able to Facebook each other directly brain to brain.