Direct Brain-To-Brain Connection Established Between Humans

WASHINGTON: Scientists, led by an Indian-origin researcher, have successfully linked the brains of two people, allowing one person to control the hands of another using just their thoughts.

Researchers from the University of Washington 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 new 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.

"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.

"Now we have replicated our methods and know that they can work reliably with walk-in participants," said Stocco.

The research team led by Rajesh Rao, a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering, combined two kinds of noninvasive instruments and fine-tuned software to connect two human brains in real time.

The process is fairly straightforward. One participant is hooked to an electroencephalography machine that reads brain activity and sends electrical pulses via the Web to the second participant, who is wearing a swim cap with a transcranial magnetic stimulation coil placed near the part of the brain that controls hand movements.

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