Brain Science

Brain Science — page 3 — interface BTB Earlier researchers created brain to machine interfaces that allowed people to use their thoughts to control computers But this was the first time scientists had achieved a BTBI How They Did It The Duke University researchers in North Carolina implanted electricity conducting devices called electrodes into the brain of a rat they called a decoder rat This rat was placed in an enclosure with two levers one of which it could press to receive a sip of water The decoder rat pushed the water lever 50 percent of the time the expected result if the rat was randomly picking a lever Telepathy and the Future Meanwhile a second rat in Brazil the encoder rat Miguel Nicolelis believes the two rats in his experiments worked cooperatively to achieve the lever tasks because each was rewarded sat in an identical enclosure Researchers used light signals to train the encoder to press the water lever The rat pressed the water lever correctly 95 percent of the time Electrodes implanted in its brain recorded electric activity while the rat performed the task The electric activity was converted into signals and sent to a computer to be transmitted over the only when the decoder rat chose the correct lever He believes this principle could be expanded to include several brains cooperating to solve tasks no one person could solve alone in addition if methods of transmitting thoughts without the need to implant electrodes can be perfected he believes this could allow people who do not speak the same language to communicate with their minds People also could telepathically share their thoughts and emotions through the Internet just like they share e mails Internet to the decoder rat s brain When it received the signals the decoder rat pressed the correct lever approximately 70 percent of the time The researchers got the same result when the encoder rat learned to identify the correct lever using touch rather than ight signals 6

Brain Science — page 4 — Miguel Nicolelis 1961 MED razilian scientist Miguel Nicolelis is a professor of neurobiology psychology and biomedical engineering at Duke University On June 12 2014 more than 1 billion people witnessed the results of his research during the televised kickoff of the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil A paraplegic man named Juliano Pinto wore a robotic exoskeleton designed by Nicolelis Computers in the suit translated Pinto's thoughts into commands that moved the exoskeleton The result was Pinto kicking a soccer ball GE Nicolelis is known for other contributions to neuroscience too He was the first person to propose animals and people could use brain signals to control artificial limbs Nicolelis also has contributed to studying greatly brain diseases by bringing together knowledge about behavior cells and brain systems He believes BE brain diseases can be understood best TERNER DE by studying the molecules within cells Problems at the molecular level can lead to abnormal cell activities which can ROBOTICAN CU cause errors in brain circuits and give way to known symptoms and

Brain Science — page 5

Brain Science — page 6 — EEG machines are commonly used in Human to Rat brain research Telepathy Soon after the Duke University study Ethical questions About Telepathy was published other researchers provided further evidence a BTBI was possible Scientists at Harvard University led by Seung Schik Yoo tested a noninvasive BTBI Unlike the Duke test this team s research did not involve cutting into the head to place electrodes directly on the brain Electrodes were placed on human volunteers scalps and connected to an electroencephalograph Bioethicists experts who study ethics in biological research have raised questions about BTBIs Bioethicists John Trimper Paul Wolpe and Karen Rommelfanger of Emory University believe reading or sending thoughts could be an invasion of personal privacy especially if it is done without permission They also worry that Since BTBIs can be transmitted over the internet hackers could interfere with people s neur devices Other concerns include the ability for criminals to silently communicate crime plans and the possibility of emotional harm to test subjects Bioethicists point out any technology can be used for good or bad Still technology Writer Sebastian Anthony writes that BTBIs are terrifying if you stop to think about the nefarious possibilities of a dictatorship with mind control tech EEG machine a device that records electric activity in the brain The rats in the study were hooked up to a focused ultrasound FUS machine The machine focuses sound waves on a particular brain area In this case it was used to stimulate the part of the rats brains that controls tail movement A computer connected the EEG and FUS machines Researchers instructed each human volunteer to think about moving a rat's tail The EEG recorded the brain signals created by this thought and the computer sent the signals to a rat s brain through the FUS machine The rats moved their tails 94 percent of the time 9

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