Telepathic rats
The brains of two rats were connected across continents
The work was published in the journal Scientific Reports (Miguel Pais-Vieira et al., A Brain-to-Brain Interface for Real-Time Sharing of Sensorimotor Information, in the public domain), and its summary is given by NatureNews: Intercontinental mind-meld units two rats.
The experiment involved two rats, one of which was in Brazil, and the other in the USA. One of the animals acted as an encoder, and the other as a performer. Microchips were implanted in each brain, which in the first case read information, and in the other – transmitted it.
According to the task of the experimenters, the first rat had to choose one of the two levers over which the light bulb lit up. At the same time, the computer analyzed the electrical activity of the animal's brain, compared it with the previous one and determined which of the two levers it corresponded more to (it was the brain activity that was analyzed, and not the result of pressing, although they usually coincided).
The result was transmitted using a chip to the brain of the second rat in the form of a single or multiple pulse. She had to guess what the first rat had chosen and press the same lever. If the guess was successful, both rats received a reward.
According to scientists, they managed to achieve the accuracy of the coincidence of the actions of two animals in 64 percent, which is not too much, but statistically significantly differs from randomness. A positive result was observed both when using the motor (responsible for movement) cortex of the brain and the sensory (responsible for processing information from the sensory organs).
The experts interviewed by Nature note that the work was done at a good methodological level, but has no specific scientific or applied purpose. The setting of the experiment is not suitable for the study of brain interfaces, and as the first step to the creation of "organic computers" claimed by the authors is too unconvincing. Nevertheless, the authors of the article are going to continue their research by connecting several different animals to the network, and not only rats, but also monkeys.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru04.03.2013