What Did One Brain Say to the Other Brain?

Scientists have recently been able to have rats communicate by their brains! The researchers connected the two brain implants they made by wires. The rats were able to send sensory and motor signals to one another. This has been the first ever brain-to-brain "conversation". One thing the scientists studied was whether the rat receiving signal could interpret the information that was sent. The greatest test they put the rats through was linking their brains together even when they were thousands of miles apart. Until recently, the brain implants were used to read brain signals and send them to a computer. The computer would then tell what the animal is doing at that moment. So, Professor Miguel Nicolelis and his team at Duke University decided to switch the computer for another rat.

First, the team had to train the rats to solve a simple problem. The rats were put in a box with two levers and two lights above them. When they saw one of the lights above a lever turn on, they had to press the lever below and they would receive an treat. When they began the test, they had to designate one mouse the encoder and the other the decoder. The encoder would receive the visual clue and press the right lever. The information would be passed to the decoder, who did not receive the visual clue, and they would have to decode the information and do the same to get the treat too. They also had a feedback system.If the decoder presses the right lever, the encoder gets a second treat. If the decoder gets it wrong, the encoder does not get a second treat.

The long distance link was successfully done between a rat at Duke and a rat at the University of Natal in Brazil. Prof. Nicolelis believes that if he can do this long distance link successfully, he can one day be able to link millions of rats together to solve the same simple problem. Prof. Christopher James of the University of Warwick says that the only way the signals can be sent is a implants on the brain, not just on the top of the head.

Although the topic is quite intriguing and really amazing, it seems wrong to cut open anyone, human or rat's, head to insert a chip so they can communicate with another brain. Since, I believe this, I am biased against the idea so I tried to understand it at all angles. There are many ethical problems that come up with this topic though. One is the fact that you must cut open the scalp to insert the implant. This is a very invasive way of reaching the brain. I don't like the idea of this at all. One thing I see that is great about brain communication is the fact that people or animals would be capable of sharing sensory and motor skills. Another thing that could come good out of it is that if one person does not have enough of something in their body, someone could send them a signal telling them to make what they need, say a particular type of cell. All in all, I found this article to very intriguing and I think it will be interesting to see where this goes in the near future, since there are many pros and cons.


Source:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21604005