University of Washington researchers used a direct brain-to-brain connection to enable pairs of participants to play a question-and-answer game by transmitting signals from one brain to the other over the Internet. The experiment is thought to be the first to show that two brains can be directly linked to allow one person to guess what’s on another person’s mind.
Lead author Andrea Stocco believes that “This is the most complex brain-to-brain experiment that’s been done to date in humans. It uses conscious experiences through signals that are experienced visually, and it requires two people to collaborate.” Chanel Prat, Darbey Losey, Jeneva Cronin, Joseph Wu and Justin Abernathy co-authored the paper.
The study builds on the UW team’s 2013 experiment demonstrating a direct brain-to-brain connection between humans. Other scientists have connected the brains of rats and monkeys, and transmitted brain signals from a human to a rat, using electrodes inserted into animals’ brains. The UW team used noninvasive technology to send a person’s brain signals over the Internet to control the hand motions of another person.
Click to watch the University of Washington video.