BlueGin
Diamond Member
- Jul 10, 2004
- 24,718
- 17,175
- 1,405
Theres tantalising evidence that technology could one day allow us to transmit thoughts telepathically between two brains. The question is how far can we go?
In a lab at Harvard Medical School, a man is using his mind to wag a rats tail. To send his command, he merely glances at a strobe light flickering on a computer screen, and a set of electrodes stuck to his scalp detects the activity triggered in his brain. A computer processes and relays the electrodes signal to an ultrasound machine poised over the rats head. The machine delivers a train of low-energy ultrasound pulses into the rats brain, stimulating its motor cortex the area that governs its movements. The pulses are aimed purposely at a rice-grain-sized area that controls the rats tail. It starts to wag.
This link-up is the brainchild of Seung-Schik Yoo, and it works more than 94% of the time. Whenever a human looks at the flickering lights, the rats tail almost always starts to wag just over a second later. The connection between them is undeniably simple. The volunteer is basically flicking a switch in the rats brain between two positions move tail, and dont move tail. But it is still an impressive early example of something we will see more of in coming years a way to connect between two living brains.
BBC - Future - Health - Will we ever? communicate telepathically?
In a lab at Harvard Medical School, a man is using his mind to wag a rats tail. To send his command, he merely glances at a strobe light flickering on a computer screen, and a set of electrodes stuck to his scalp detects the activity triggered in his brain. A computer processes and relays the electrodes signal to an ultrasound machine poised over the rats head. The machine delivers a train of low-energy ultrasound pulses into the rats brain, stimulating its motor cortex the area that governs its movements. The pulses are aimed purposely at a rice-grain-sized area that controls the rats tail. It starts to wag.
This link-up is the brainchild of Seung-Schik Yoo, and it works more than 94% of the time. Whenever a human looks at the flickering lights, the rats tail almost always starts to wag just over a second later. The connection between them is undeniably simple. The volunteer is basically flicking a switch in the rats brain between two positions move tail, and dont move tail. But it is still an impressive early example of something we will see more of in coming years a way to connect between two living brains.
BBC - Future - Health - Will we ever? communicate telepathically?
