Posted on 04/10/2013 11:32:06 AM PDT by Jyotishi
New York - Scientists have for the first time linked the brains of a human and a rat, enabling the man to use just his thoughts to wiggle the rodent's tail.
This is the first case of a brain-to-brain interface between species, and the first example of a noninvasive brain-to-brain interface, researchers claimed.
Earlier this year, scientists had linked together the brains of two rats.This first known instance of a brain-to-brain interface apparently helped the rodents share data to accomplish certain tasks, even across intercontinental distances, LiveScience reported.
In the latest experiment, researchers from Harvard Medical School employed noninvasive techniques to link the brains of a human and a rat. The man had electrodes stuck onto his scalp that picked up brain-wave activity.
The rat was placed in a machine that focused ultrasound pulses through its skull to its brain, and was anesthetised so that it would not wriggle its head during the experiment. The volunteer had a video screen placed in front of him that displayed a flickering pattern of light. If he paid attention to the screen, his brain waves would synchronise with the strobe light.
If he looked away, or even if he looked at it while thinking of something else, his brain waves would not synchronise with the light flickers.
When the man focused on the flickering pattern, that action signalled the ultrasound to stimulate the part of the sleeping rat's brain responsible for moving its body. In response, the rodent flicked its tail.
The interface was accurate 94 per cent of the time, with a time delay of only about 1.6 seconds from the moment the man initiated his intent to the rat tail's wiggling. "This is the first noninvasive attempt to achieve a brain-to-brain interface," researcher Seung-Schik Yoo, a neuroscientist and bio engineer at Harvard Medical School, told the website.
Yoo noted that brain-machine interfaces are getting increasingly advanced over time, enabling people with paralysis to control robot arms. In the future, interspecies brain-to-brain interfaces could help search-and-rescue operations, Yoo suggested. The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
It was a Dem no other could make a rat do their bidding!
Wonder what he could do with the rat in the White Hut?
Sometimes wiggling tails create thoughts in humans.
Nah. No brain in those RATS.
The flies know, and now so do the rats.
maybe it would work with a D, but then it wouldn’t be the first “INTER-SPECIES” brain link...
they’re not human.
Unreported.....
The man now has cravings for cheese and a pathological fear of cats.
You just need an audio-visual link. Wave money at them and they will fixate on it and do whatever is passed over the auditory link.
yup.
it appears the various muslim terrorists and dictators have a very high speed video channel (feeding directly into that infamous Teleprompter)
I wonder who paid for this ‘scientific research’?
Obviously I’m too late to make the “wag the tail by just thinking” comments
What are you talking about, it only works with democrats. Like minds can speak without uttering a word. You didn’t know that?
Were both DEMOCRATS?? Wait, if the human was a Democrat, maybe the Rat was smarter, and knew he Knew the human was thinking so the rat decided to move the tail.
What Industry?/ The T-Shirt printing Industry??? I see Afro-Americans walking around with Obama T-shirts around Tampa.
that’s nothing!, I’ve seen dems make sheep sit up, beg, riot and vote all at the mention of a free dollar.
They wag each other's tails on all important issues.
Leni
Rat’s only wag their tails when their idiot Rat leader Odumbo is in front of them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.