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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 09 2018, @02:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the blinky-lights dept.

c|net:

Neuroscientists behind the project called it "BrainNet", a "multi-person non-invasive direct brain-to-brain interface for collaborative problem solving".

In layman's terms, researchers from the University of Washington and Carnegie Mellon University figured out a way to connect three brains (still attached to their human hosts!) and have the owners of said brains make collective choices together without speaking.

And they tested it by playing Tetris. Because of course they did.

The team used "electroencephalograms" (EEGs) to record electric impulses from two human brains and "transcranial magnetic stimulation" (TMS) to deliver information to a third brain. The end result: an interface that allowed three human subjects to collaborate and solve Tetris problems using brain-to-brain communication.

The article doesn't say how much calibration they had to perform for each group of test subjects, to make sure they were isolating the correct signal from the senders' brains.


Original Submission

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Transcranial Brain Stimulation Could Improve Working Memory 14 comments

Zapping Elderly Brains with Electricity Improves Short-term Memory—for Almost an Hour

Science Mag:

despite its critical role, working memory is a fragile cognitive resource that declines with age, Reinhart says. Previous studies had suggested that reduced working-memory performance in the elderly is linked to uncoupled activity in different brain areas. So Reinhart and his team set out to test whether recoupling brain waves in older adults could boost the brain's ability to temporarily store information.

To do so, the researchers used jolts of weak electrical current to synchronize waves in the prefrontal and temporal cortex—two brain areas critical for cognition—and applied the current to the scalps of 42 healthy people in their 60s and 70s who showed no signs of decline in mental ability. Before their brains were zapped, participants looked at a series of images: an everyday object, followed briefly by a blank screen, and then either an identical or a modified version of the same object. The goal was to spot whether the two images were different.

Then the participants took the test again, while their brains were stimulated with a current. After about 25 minutes of applying electricity, participants were on average more accurate at identifying changes in the images than they were before the stimulation. Following stimulation, their performance in the test was indistinguishable from that of a group of 42 people in their 20s.

tl;dr;: electrocute grandpa, then ask him where he hid his will.

Transcranial Brain Stimulation Could Improve Working Memory

Scientists Test Whether Brain Stimulation Could Help Sharpen Aging Memory

One leading hypothesis contends that working memory works by far-flung brain areas firing synchronously. When two areas are on the same brain wavelength, communication is tight, and working memory functions seamlessly.

But as we age, these brain areas start falling out of step, and these once tightly linked brain areas are no longer on the same page. A study published Monday in [DOI: 10.1038/s41593-019-0371-x] [DX] Nature Neuroscience demonstrates a link between these mismatched brain rhythms and declines in working memory in older adults and shows that a precise form of electrical stimulation applied to the scalp can coax these brain areas back into sync.

Applied to the brain via a skullcap studded with electrodes, an experimental form of transcranial brain stimulation delivers alternating current to a small group of neurons to nudge them to a specific wavelength. Imagine two giant pendulums swinging at different rates. The brain stimulation nudges each pendulum with a pair of electrical hands pushing at the same frequency, causing them to sync up and swing synchronously.

Also at The Guardian.

Related: Memory Enhancement Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation Could Speed Learning by 40%
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Could Reduce People's Intentions to Commit Violence
Scientists Connect 3 Actual Human Brains (Then Make Them Play Tetris)


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @03:30AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @03:30AM (#746270)

    What is this, a scientist week? Why are them scientists doing all these shits, on SoylentNews no less? What's going on here?

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday October 09 2018, @04:29AM (2 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 09 2018, @04:29AM (#746281) Journal

      Why are them scientists doing all these shits, on SoylentNews no less?

      What, did they fry you brain trying to communicate with you?

      I mean, come on, at least S/N communication is writing only, your exposure to it should carry minimal risk for a normal human.

      What's going on here?

      Trump, alt-right and ctrl-left and whatnot have become boring subjects by predictability and the level of discussion.

      aristachus submissions are still rejected, jmoris still spews his authoritarian megalomaniac stuff (disregarding the fact that the powers to be will squish him in the process), khallow is still afraid that renewables will let him bankrupt and the 3rd world in poverty, TMB is still half-fishing (and S/N servers still generate http-500 for a few minutes around the time the mod-points ration is renewed everyday), ETH is still trolling on the same lines as ever (only much rarer these days, but the topics? same-old same-ols), I'm still grinning, the group of "monkey" nics here are still "monkeying", etc (ah, yes, the "man power" troll is still spamming S/N). (apologies for all the rest of you which I omitted, it's not that you aren't worthy of a mention, but I'm growing old and the current C++ compilation is almost finished)

      Maayybe Runaway shows some signs of change at heart [soylentnews.org] in regards with the "liberty from government regulation" vs "cost of health care" - he just learnt that his MD won't bother anymore with the rest-of-his-life illness he nurses - 'cause corporate mergers and whatnow, and it's not in MD's mercantile interest to do it anymore, Hippocratic oath be damn'd.
      Funny how things like this start to mellow-down conservatives when they discover that their "Fuck you, I got mine" turns out not enough and the "Fuck you, I got mine" of others have more power than his.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @12:45PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @12:45PM (#746408)

        Trump, alt-right and ctrl-left and whatnot have become boring subjects by predictability and the level of discussion.

        Yeah, those are pretty damn lame.

      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday October 09 2018, @05:45PM

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday October 09 2018, @05:45PM (#746524) Journal

        Oh yeah! We're monkeying the crap outta it!

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @08:00AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @08:00AM (#746327)

    I can't make my left hand agree on the same strategy as my right when I'm playing Tetris, I can't see how adding two more brains would make that task more effective ..

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @10:05AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @10:05AM (#746360)
    The three brains capture the scientists, enslave them, and force them to fight gladiatorial contests for their entertainment and gambling pleasure.
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @11:34AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @11:34AM (#746381)

    I swear that summary reads like an episode of Fringe...

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Zinho on Tuesday October 09 2018, @12:20PM (1 child)

    by Zinho (759) on Tuesday October 09 2018, @12:20PM (#746395)

    The article doesn't say how much calibration they had to perform for each group of test subjects, to make sure they were isolating the correct signal from the senders' brains.

    All they have to d ois find subjects whose brains are drift compatible. [wikia.com] It's good to know that we'll be ready when the kaiju arrive. [imdb.com]

    --
    "Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by DECbot on Tuesday October 09 2018, @01:21PM

      by DECbot (832) on Tuesday October 09 2018, @01:21PM (#746422) Journal

      While the giant fighting robots may not be ready, we will at least be able to achieve the highest known densities of munitions per cargobay in record time.

      --
      cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
  • (Score: 2) by choose another one on Tuesday October 09 2018, @01:49PM

    by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 09 2018, @01:49PM (#746434)

    The article doesn't say how much calibration they had to perform for each group of test subjects, to make sure they were isolating the correct signal from the senders' brains.

    You know, my money is actually on _less_ calibration than is required to get the correct signal from a senders brain using conventional audio/visual/body-language comms.

    (20+ yrs and still trying to calibrate to one woman - telepathy would be easier, particularly as she thinks I already possess it)

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