Human Brain-to-brain Interface Allows Researcher to Control Others' Motions

Researchers from the University of Washington have developed a noninvasive human-to-human interface that enables one individual to control another's hand motions using a signal sent via the Internet.

In the past, similar feats have been accomplished between mice and, in one case, even a human and mouse; however, in the most recent study, researcher Rajesh Rao was able to move his colleague Andrea Stocco's finger on a keyboard via a brain signal even as they sat on opposite sides of the university's campus.

"The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains," Stocco said. "We want to take the knowledge of a brain and transmit it directly from brain to brain."

When the experiment took place on Aug. 12, Rao, a professor of computer science and engineering who has worked on brain-computer interfacing for more than a decade, wore a cap with electrodes hooked up to an electroencephalography (EEG) machine, which reads electric activity in the brain. Stocco, meanwhile, sat with a transcranial magnetic stimulation coil placed directly over his left motor cortex, which controls hand movement.

Rao proceeded to look at a computer screen and play a simple video game with his mind only, imagining moving his right hand to hit the "fire" button at the points in the game when he was supposed to fire a cannon at a target. Nearly immediately and entirely involuntarily, Stocco's hand performed this motion.

The experience, he says, felt something like a nervous tic.

"It was both exciting and eerie to watch an imagined action from my brain get translated into actual action by another brain," Rao said. "This was basically a one-way flow of information from my brain to his. The next step is having a more equitable two-way conversation directly between the two brains."

The technologies used in the course of the experiment, the researchers point out, are not new -- EEG is routinely used by clinicians and researchers to record brain activity and transcranial magnetic stimulation is a common, noninvasive method of delivering stimulation to the brain to elicit a response.

Furthermore, the researchers stress that the innovation does not mean submitting one's actions against his or her will.

"I think some people will be unnerved by this because they will overestimate the technology," Chantel Prat, an assistant professor in psychology who helped conduct the experiment, said. "There's no possible way the technology that we have could be used on a person unknowingly or without their willing participation."

Stocco said the technology could one day be used, for example, to help an untrained civilian land a plane should a pilot become incapacitated or allow individuals living with disabilities communicate a desire for food, water and other basic necessities.