Researchers have replicated a direct brain-to-brain connection between pairs of people as part of a study following the initial demonstration a year ago. Researchers were able to transmit the signals from one person’s brain over the Internet and use these signals to control the hand motions of another person within a split second of sending that signal.
In the 2013 study, the UW team was the first to demonstrate two human brains communicating in this way. The recent more-comprehensive study was published Wednesday (Nov. 5) in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. “The new study brings our brain-to-brain interfacing paradigm from an initial demonstration to something that is closer to a deliverable technology,” said co-author Andrea Stocco, a research assistant professor of psychology and a researcher at UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. “Now we have replicated our methods and know that they can work reliably with walk-in participants.”