Communications of the ACM
Scientists Connect Human Brain, 'Rat Cyborg' Brain Together
Researchers in China have constructed a wireless brain-to-brain interface that enables a human to direct a rat through a maze.
Credit: Zhejiang University
Chinese researchers have constructed a wireless brain-to-brain interface that enables a human to direct a rat through a maze.
The computer link, via electrodes installed in two sections of the rodent brain, allows decoding of the human brain's signals, stimulating the rat brain to move.
After implantation, the researchers "trained" the rats by using the electrodes to generate specific movements, which they wirelessly transmitted to the rat's brain through a backpack containing the stimulator.
The human operator was fitted with an electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure brain signals, connected to the computer for neural signal decoding and rat-brain stimulation.
Because the skull and skin are not very conductive, said University of Auckland’s Angus McMorland, the EEG link does not provide a good spatial signal, which prevents information from being parsed rapidly from human to rat brain, resulting in an input lag that operators must account for when guiding the rat.
From CNet
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