The Brains of Three People were Connected by Scientists, Allowing them to Share Thoughts
A new interesting experiment took place recently, where scientists enabled three people to share their thoughts through a three-way brain connection. The participants played a game similar to Tetris. The team behind this believes that they might be able to connect more people in the future in a similar way.
So how does this work exactly?
Magnetic fields were used in order to stimulate the neurons, through a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The other things used by the scientists were the electroencephalograms (EEGs), which are supposed to record the electrical impulses which show brain activity. This combination was given the name of “BrainNet” by the scientists and according to them, this new fascinating system could at some point be used by more people to connect their minds. Apparently, this could happen even over the web.
What is the purpose of this experiment?
The most important thing here is that BrainNet might in fact give us an insight into how the human brain is functioning on a deeper level. The researchers have mentioned that this “brain-to-brain interface” is making it possible for three people to cooperate and solve a problem together by using “brain-to-brain communication”.
What the scientists did in this experiment was to make two of the participants play a Tetris-style game that involved falling blocks. These two people, which were the “senders”, were connected to EEG electrodes and they needed to make a decision if a block had to be rotated or not. Whenever a decision was taken, a signal would be produced in the brain and then picked up on by the EEG. Furthermore, a single “receiver” would get the choices through a TMS cap. This cap was able to create phantom flashes of light in the mind of the receiver, which meant that even though he couldn’t see the whole game, he had actually rotated the specific falling block when a light flash signal was sent.
As our second lead editor, Anna C. Mackinno provides guidance on the stories Great Lakes Ledger reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and accurate for our readers. If you see a particularly clever title, you can likely thank Anna. Anna received a BA and and MA from Fordham University.
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