04 Sep Telepathy With Minimal Technology Proven Feasible
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Giulio Ruffini PhD
Starlab Barcelona
Neuroelectrics Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain.
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Ruffini: We demonstrated that it is possible to transmit information directly from a brain to another one, without intervention of the peripheral nervous system (PNS) – e.g., the senses. By hyperinteraction we mean this: the technologically mediated transmission of information directly from one brain to another, bypassing our senses or effectors (all which require the intervention of the PNS).
Medical Research: Were any of the findings unexpected?
Dr. Ruffini: Not really, we eventually got the results we expected (or better). However, we discovered along the way that the main difficulty was to show that there was no intervention of the PNS in the communication chain. This is where the work got quite technical. We had to pay close attention to the precision of our systems (e.g., needed a robotized TMS system) and to make sure the subject had no way of knowing what was going on to infer what the delivered message was. This created rather important challenges.
Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Dr. Ruffini: Our work is rather exploratory as this stage. However, I think it shows that it will eventually be possible to communicate with people who have partial or no access to PNS subsystems, as in MCS patients. This has certainly already been investigated for the BCI part of the concept (the brain-to-computer link). Another aspect discussed in the paper is that such a “closed-loop” communication could be implemented within the same subject: a psychiatric patient may use internal information to self-stimulate away bad situations. As we write, “future research could explore the use of closed mind-loops in which information associated to voluntary activity from a brain area or network is captured and, after adequate external processing, used to control other brain elements in the same subject. This approach could lead to conscious synthetically mediated modulation of phenomena best detected subjectively by the subject, including emotions, pain and psychotic, depressive or obsessive-compulsive thoughts.”
Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Dr. Ruffini: To keep working on the CBI part of the system. We used a fairly simple technique (single-site TMS induced phosphenes). I am sure other non-invasive means will be tested, including multisite tCS (transcranial current stimulation) or ultrasound stimulation. Invasive solutions are also of interest and potentially more powerful (both from BCI and CBI links) but obviously more limited in practice.
Citation:
Carles Grau, Romuald Ginhoux, Alejandro Riera, Thanh Lam Nguyen, Hubert Chauvat, Michel Berg, Julià L. Amengual, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Giulio Ruffini. Conscious Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans Using Non-Invasive Technologies. PLoS ONE, 2014; 9 (8): e105225 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0105225
Last Updated on February 4, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD