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Scientists have connected the brains of lab rats, allowing one to communicate directly to another via cables.
The wired brain implants allowed sensory and motor signals to be sent from one rat to another, creating the first ever brain-to-brain interface.
The scientists then tested whether the rat receiving the signal could correctly interpret the information.
As the ultimate test of their system, the team even linked the brains of rats that were thousands of miles apart.
Details of the work are outlined in the journal Scientific Reports.
Professor Miguel Nicolelis and his team at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina built on their previous work with brain-machine interfaces.
In a study published earlier this month, the researchers implanted electrodes in the part of the rat’s brain that processes tactile information and attached these to infrared sensors – effectively allowing the rat to “touch” infrared light.
In their latest study, the scientists wanted to test whether the systems they had developed could be used to establish a new artificial communication channel between animals.
“Until recently we used to record this brain activity and send it to a computer… and the [computer] tells us what the animal is going to do,” Prof Nicolelis told the BBC’s Science in Action programme.
“So we reasoned, if we can do that with a computer, could another brain do that?”
BBC has the full article
