title: Playing 20 Questions with the Mind: Collaborative Problem Solving by Humans Using a Brain-to-Brain Interface.
abstract: We present, to our knowledge, the first demonstration that a non-invasive brain-to-brain interface (BBI) can be used to allow one human to guess what is on the mind of another human through an interactive question-and-answering paradigm similar to the "20 Questions" game. As in previous non-invasive BBI studies in humans, our interface uses electroencephalography (EEG) to detect specific patterns of brain activity from one participant (the "respondent"), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to deliver functionally-relevant information to the brain of a second participant (the "inquirer"). Our results extend previous BBI research by (1) using stimulation of the visual cortex to convey visual stimuli that are privately experienced and consciously perceived by the inquirer; (2) exploiting real-time rather than off-line communication of information from one brain to another; and (3) employing an interactive task, in which the inquirer and respondent must exchange information bi-directionally to collaboratively solve the task. The results demonstrate that using the BBI, ten participants (five inquirer-respondent pairs) can successfully identify a "mystery item" using a true/false question-answering protocol similar to the "20 Questions" game, with high levels of accuracy that are significantly greater than a control condition in which participants were connected through a sham BBI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America; Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stocco
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America; Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Chantel S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Prat
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Darby M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Losey
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jeneva A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Cronin
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Justin A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Abernethy
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Rajesh P N
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Rao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011340:Problem Solving; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult