From Wikimedia
Communication among people has been facilitated by many different technologies, such as phones, apps, and the Internet. Essentially information flows from one brain to another. Are there ways to communicate among brains directly? It might be possible to plug electrodes into brains but that would be too invasive for most people. Scientists have found that it is feasible to use electroencephalography (EEG) to record brain activity non-invasively and the signal can be passed to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to deliver the information to the brain. For example, motor intention signals can be captured by EEG from the Sender and the intention can be delivered to the Receiver to complete a visual-motor task. Andrea Stocco, a scientist at University of Washington, and his colleagues have pushed this technology further to build a brain-to-brain network, called BrainNet, for three people. Two Senders send information to a Receiver, who has the role of integrating the information and deciding on a course of action in a Tetris-like game. Importantly the Receiver has both TMS (to receive information) and EEG (to perform an action) so that there is no need for any physical movement in the interaction.
Specifically, in the game, the Senders can see the full screen and decide whether to rotate a falling block 180 degrees or not. The decision of Yes or No is conveyed by the Senders through looking at different LED lights. If a Sender looks at the 15-Hz LED on the right-hand side of the screen, his or her brain would produce a 15 Hz signal that is captured by EEG. This signal means the decision is to rotate the block, then the signal is sent to the TMS attached to the Receiver, generating a magnetic pulse focused onto the occipital cortex of the Receiver leading to the sensation of seeing a flash of light. The Receiver then sends an EEG signal to implement the decision of rotating the block. When a signal is artificially changed to introduce error in the communication, the Receiver can further interact with the two Senders to make the right decision.
This innovation of three-brain network may open the door for large scale Internet-based brain-to-brain communication, even though some technical challenges lie ahead.
Link: Research Article
Contact: Researcher
Location: Washington, US
Purpose
Find alternative ways of communication
Idea
Skip the traditional communication channels and directly connect the sources of information: the brains.
Further Possibilities
1. Large scale BrainNet for communication and collaboration
2. Develop head devices and mobile apps that connect people’s mind
3. Understand people’s ideas through non-invasive devices
4. Use Artificial Intelligence techniques to understand brain activities through non-invasive devices
5. Organize collective brainpower through the BrainNet
Questions
1. What might be all the ways to use AI to help understand people’s mind?
2. What would an ideal brain-to-brain interface look like?
3. How might we use BrainNet to build a world brain?
