Researchers at Barcelona’s Starlab claim in a paper to have achieved direct “brain-to-brain communication in humans” over the Internet using non-invasive EEG to read one person’s brain signals and transcranial magnetic stimulation to deliver the message to the other person. In IEEE Spectrum, critics called it a publicity “stunt.” Maybe, but… direct brain-to-brain communication!!!
The experiment was set up like this: While hooked up to an EEG device the sender was asked to imagine moving his hands or feet when shown an image that represented a 1 or 0, respectively. The EEG data was transmitted to the computer, translated into binary code, and emailed to the system at the recipients’ end. The recipients, blindfolded, received electric pulses from the robotized TMS system in the visual cortex of their brains. That triggered the experience of phosphenes: the perception of seeing flashes of light that are not actually there. The recipients reported verbally when they experienced a flash, and this was translated into binary code and then to the message. It’s super slow — the equivalent of telepathic Morse code. Still, the message was delivered.
“Mind-blowing Advance? Direct Brain-to-Brain Communication Between Humans Demonstrated”
PREVIOUSLY:
“Rat brains linked in first ever brain-to-brain interface“