Direct Brain Communication Between Humans Study Replicated

University of Washington researchers have successfully replicated a direct brain-to-brain connection between pairs of people as part of a scientific study following the team’s initial demonstration a year ago. In the newly published study, which involved six people, researchers were able to transmit the signals from one person’s brain over the Internet and use these signals to control the hand motions of another person within a split second of sending that signal.

Neuroscience News

Is this a good thing? Where does this lead if turned to less than noble purposes?



And make no mistake, this will be further developed:

“The new study brings our brain-to-brain interfacing paradigm from an initial demonstration to something that is closer to a deliverable technology,” said co-author Andrea Stocco, a research assistant professor of psychology and a researcher at UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. “Now we have replicated our methods and know that they can work reliably with walk-in participants.”

It's packaged and marketed as a neato keen new technology frontier to exploit and use in marketing strategies.

They’re also exploring how to influence brain waves that correspond with alertness or sleepiness. Eventually, for example, the brain of a sleepy airplane pilot dozing off at the controls could stimulate the copilot’s brain to become more alert.

Oh, that would be a good thing, no?

And how about this:

The project could also eventually lead to “brain tutoring,” in which knowledge is transferred directly from the brain of a teacher to a student.

“Imagine someone who’s a brilliant scientist but not a brilliant teacher. Complex knowledge is hard to explain – we’re limited by language,” said co-author Chantel Prat, a faculty member at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences and a UW assistant professor of psychology.

Yeah, imagine being able to electronically mind-meld with say, Stephen Hawking or any number of other incredibly intelligent people.

But will it stop there?

Does anyone think it possble this type of technology would ever be considered useful in directing larger groups of people in any other conceivable manner?

Sounds like evasion of privacy to me....you know with someone being able to get into your brain all the time.

Yeah mass thought transfer could be dangerous if perfected in the wrong hands.

why am I reminded of that scene from Dune. with the brain sucker, or maybe that was another movie I am thinking of.

When they can read pets minds, let me know. Otherwise I'll refuse to grant access.

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

Interesting, if such a learning technique became prevalent it may mean that the human race would lose the ability to learn normally and so invention would actually stagnate so a great idea but not good for the races future.
As for abuse as you point out zombie assassins was my thought, instead of programming a person a cult leader or terrorist could litterally rewrite there mind using this technology through repetative stimulation of emotions and thoughts in a new and horrifying brainwashing technique that could make sleeper agents and assassins of anyone.

Yup....another thing for those who want to control us to use as a tool.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Yup....another thing for those who want to control us to use as a tool.

We ain't tools?

Use us, download all your defective thinking, all your brains ARE BELONG TO US!

Sorry, pre-caffeine rant goin' on here,...
Hmm, ahem, ...
Can I get a connection here...eh?

Aren't Americans too dumbed down and apathetic for critical thinking anyway, no need to spend billions on sinister mind-meld projects to swerve polls when the same old tricks will do the job.

Would be awesome for video games though, having someone play a game for you, blame the lag when something goes wrong.

This sort of thing has already been happening for donkey's years imho, and we're being drip-fed the information now as it enters mainstream academic attention.

The technologies have, I believe, been refined to great sophistication under black budget projects, and have been extensively road-tested utilising plenty of deniable test subjects.

There's a stack of respectably scientific stuff on the www which can be found to support the idea that these mind-meld technologies are very well-established, and I could spin a yarn or two about some of my own experiences in the field.

I would suggest that if they are choosing to allow this sort of info into the public domain, we could well be seeing some 'breakthrough' tech being touted for seemingly innocent purposes soon, along with attempts at tagging prospective 'beneficiaries' (subjects) for various projects and initiatives. Likely it will start with the military, with the soldiers - as is often the way, once they're done with the asylum.

The other thing to take very seriously in conjunction with this, is the OOBE side of things. The spooks and their various leagues of contemporaries have been well aware of the magical constitution of Reality for generations, and have probably already begun attempts to synthesise aspects such as astral perception with technological feats, perhaps in an effort to improve a person's capacity for differing types of reconnaissance and recall. The movie inception is perhaps a nice little hint at some of what's been going on behind the veil.

I find all of it ultimately extremely fascinating, and only hope that those of the right-hand or centre path will be able to reign all of this in. to a neat little box of tricks for use in exceptional circumstances, where other approaches fail.

Lots to learn, lots to do - we're late, we're late, we're late! Down the rabbit-hole we go.

NB - the Holographic Universe theories and various associated topics (including assessments of the use of psychoactive compounds, insight into information communication from and to atypical forms of consciousness, quantum entanglement etc) are excellent places to go whilst learning about these sorts of things. Slight tangent, but it does tie in eventually.

well just as long as there are no adverts, I dont want to walk around listening to those 24/7

a reply to: igor_ats

Aren't Americans too dumbed down and apathetic for critical thinking anyway, no need to spend billions on sinister mind-meld projects to swerve polls when the same old tricks will do the job.

Yah, you mean like advertising? That works well enough, lol.

BTW, love your avatar…

I think this is dangerous technology. We've already lost control of our privacy. Now we're threatened with loss of control of our own bodies.

Similar tech is being developed to help amputees. I understand the desire for such tech, but I see it being abused by the government in the same way computers are being abused.

Awesome but scary. This feeds into that old computers-are-going-to-take-over-the-world thing.

To be clear, there is a substantial amount of good which can be done with this and various ither offshoot technologies.

My thesis focuses on describing novel functional connectivity properties of the sensorimotor system that are of potential interest in the field of brain-machine interface. In particular, I have investigated how the connectivity changes as a consequence of either pathologic conditions or spontaneous fluctuations of the brain's internal state. An ad-hoc electronic device has been developed to implement the appropriate experimental settings.

...

The second study was about connectivity intended as propagation of information and studied in dependence on spontaneous fluctuations of the sensorimotor system triggered by an external stimulus.

...

The third investigation assessed the plastic changes in the sensorimotor system after stroke induced by 3 months of robotic rehabilitation in chronic phase.

NON INVASIVE INVESTIGATION OF SENSORIMOTOR CONTROL FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF BRAIN-MACHINE-INTERFACE (BMI)

Could the above lead to a Terminator/Ender's Game scenario in which mentally controlled robotic warriors (a la Boston Dynamix) are turned upon "hostiles" which the operators think are a training simulation but in reality are a less than willing public?

And on the behavior modification front:

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a significant cause of worldwide disability and treatment resistance is common. High-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF-rTMS) has emerged as a treatment for MDD, and while efficacious, the daily commitment for typical 4–6 weeks of treatment poses a significant challenge. We aimed to determine the effectiveness and acceptability of an accelerated rTMS protocol for MDD.

Effectiveness and Acceptability of Accelerated Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) for Treatment-Resistant Major Depressive Disorder: an Open Label Trial

It seems as though there are several barriers to widespread effective use, bt isn't that merely a function of additional R&D?