A team of researchers from around the world have achieved brain-to-brain communication of information between humans, bringing the ability to send messages to other people's brains in other parts of the world one step closer to mainstream reality.
Different types of technology were used to send messages online from India to France, over a distance of 5,000 miles, without the participants having to go through any invasive surgery, according to CNET.
The team was made up of researchers from Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Starlab Barcelona in Spain, and Axilum Robotics in Strasbourg, France. The study marks the first time that brain-to-brain verbal communication was achieved.
Internet-connected electroencephalogram (EEG) devices were used in the study, which had electrodes attached to a subject's scalp to monitor electric currents when the subject had specific thoughts, Discovery News reported. Triggers from these signals are often used in prosthetic systems so people can use their thoughts to move artificial limbs.
The sender's thoughts in the study are translated into binary code to be sent to the receiver's end. The thought words "Hola" and "Ciao" are sent to the brain through transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) headsets attached to the receiver's scalp. The messages are seen as phosphenes, which are flashes of light that appear in the receiver's peripheral vision.
Four participants between 28 and 50 years old were involved in the study, CNET reported. One subject was assigned to sending the thought to the other three. The light was given a 1 if it appeared in one location and a 0 when appearing twice. The three receivers got the information, which was then decoded as the two words.
The team said the study serves as the first step in finding new ways for people to communicate. One possible use for the technology is for communicating with patients who suffered a stroke.
The study was published in the journal PLOS One.
"We anticipate that computers in the not-so distant future will interact directly with the human brain in a fluent manner, supporting both computer- and brain-to-brain communication routinely," the team said. "The widespread use of human brain-to-brain technologically-mediated communication will create novel possibilities for human interrelation with broad social implications that will require new ethical and legislative responses."
