Brain To Brain

Will one person or a machine be able to read exactly what another person is thinking? In the not too distant future it appears extremely likely that. Humans will face the distinct possibility of being able to directly upgrade their mental capabilities by means of implant technology. Extra senses and multi-dimensional thought present themselves as intriguing options. It is called `Thought communication`. That it means is a new language of thought. Ultimately transmitting ideas, concepts, picture sequences and abstract theorems. In a sense it will be an evolutionary milestone, potentially a billion times more effective than the introduction of the telephone. Technology is now becoming available which is opening up the realistic possibility of thought communication between individuals being achieved in the forthcoming decade. Spanish researchers proved the same recently. They claim to be the first to have demonstrated direct brain-to-brain communication between humans. The researchers, led by Giulio Ruffini, CEO of Starlab in Barcelona, successfully transmitted the Spanish and Italian words `hola`(hi) and `ciao`(hello) in binary code from the brain of a person in India to the brain of a person in France. Electroencephalography (EEG), which monitors electric currents in the brain, was used to record the information from the sender's brain, and robotized transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which causes neurons to fire from an electric current that is generated by a rapidly changing magnetic field, was used to deliver the message to the brains of the receivers in France. Researchers have for years been developing noninvasive systems for translating information directly from the human brain to the computer. These systems, called brain-computer interface, often involve brain activity-sensing tools such as EEG, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (FNIRS), and functional magnetic resonance imagine (FMRI). Researchers have also, to a lesser extent in the recent days, experimented with translating information from the computer to the brain, using brain stimulating tools such as TMS — variations of which have also been used to treat depression — and transcranial focused ultrasound (FUS). The Starlab experiment integrates two of these existing technologies to move a message from human brain to computer to human brain.New technical methods presently being looked into speed up the rate of progress in this `brain-to-brain interface`.