A direct brain-to-brain interface in humans.
We describe the first direct brain-to-brain interface in humans and present results from experiments involving six different subjects. Our non-invasive interface, demonstrated originally in August 2013, combines electroencephalography (EEG) for recording brain signals with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for delivering information to the brain. We illustrate our method using a visuomotor task in which two humans must cooperate through direct brain-to-brain communication to achieve a desired goal in a computer game. The brain-to-brain interface detects motor imagery in EEG signals recorded from one subject (the "sender") and transmits this information over the internet to the motor cortex region of a second subject (the "receiver"). This allows the sender to cause a desired motor response in the receiver (a press on a touchpad) via TMS. We quantify the performance of the brain-to-brain interface in terms of the amount of information transmitted as well as the accuracies attained in (1) decoding the sender's signals, (2) generating a motor response from the receiver upon stimulation, and (3) achieving the overall goal in the cooperative visuomotor task. Our results provide evidence for a rudimentary form of direct information transmission from one human brain to another using non-invasive means.
Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
Rajesh P N
RP
Rao
Department of Psychology and Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
Andrea
A
Stocco
Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
Matthew
M
Bryan
Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
Devapratim
D
Sarma
Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
Tiffany M
TM
Youngquist
Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
Joseph
J
Wu
Department of Psychology and Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
Chantel S
CS
Prat
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003142:Communication; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D055815:Young Adult