Mind Reading

If rats can do it, we should be able to do it too.

A new computer program helps humans to do it. A new video game headband allows a person to use his mind to wag at rat’s tail.

To send his command, he looks at a strobe light flickering on a computer screen, and a set of electrodes stuck to his scalp detects the activity in his brain. A computer processes and relays the electrodes’ signal to an ultrasound machine over the rat’s head, which delivers low-energy ultrasound pulses into the its brain, stimulating its motor cortex–the area that controls its movements. The pulses are aimed at area the size of a grain of rice that controls the rat’s tail. It starts to wag.

It works more than 94% of the time: Whenever a human looks at the flickering lights, the rat’s tail almost always starts to wag just over a second later.

Young writes: "The volunteer is basically flicking a switch in the rat’s brain between two positions–move tail, and don’t move tail. But it is still an impressive early example of something we will see more of in coming years–a way to connect between two living brains."

The next question is: Will someone be able to control US one day, using a computer? It would be far more subtle than the ranting and raving that dictators have used in the past–in fact, most of us probably wouldn’t even know it was happening (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to BOTH of these these incredible shows).