Can the brain be controlled from another body? neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis thinks so. The doctor connected two rats' brains so that one was the encoder, the one who led the experiment and the other, the decoder, was the rat that repeated the steps the first rat did. To prevent lurking variables and bias, Dr. Nicolelis connected a rat in Natal, Brazil with a rat in North Carolina; the results were quite similar except for the difficulty that the message had to go through an internet connection. The experiment was done having the encoder rat press either a right or left lever with a signal of flashing light, the pattern was then sent to a computer which sent it to the decoder rat. The decoder rat was able to press the lever 7 out of 10 times. The doctor's experiment is the first of results that will prompt the advancement of a paralyzed person being able to do things using his/her brain and another person. That is to say that if a paralyzed person's brain is connected to another person who is not paralyzed, he/she can think of what they want to do and the message will be sent to the other person's brain through a computer.
Nature Of Science Themes
1. Science is collaborative-The scientists at Duke, Brazil, and in California worked together.
2. Science is based on evidence-To prove that the experiment worked, a test of operating a lever was administered to one rat and the other followed.
Article
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/science/new-research-suggests-two-rat-brains-can-be-linked.html?ref=science&_r=0
That's really interesting. I've read articles in the past about improving the circumstances of the paralyzed, but they were all about linking the person's brain to a computer, not to an actual person. This is an amazing feat, but it makes me wonder how many people will actual volunteer to get their brain linked to someone else's.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really cool break through in the science field. The fact that people even thought up a way to do this is a feat in itself let alone the fact that it actually worked 70% of the time. I'm curious to know though how it would work if they connected people brain to brain instead of brain to computer. We are still a long ways from developing that technology I know but it's still an interesting thought.
ReplyDeleteThe brain is a very complex thing and i think that it is really cool that Dr. Nicolelis was able to connect the thoughts of the two rats. Although Andrew B. Schwartz stated that about 50% of the correct levers were pushed by chance the two rats were still able to communicate the other 20%. Eventually when this science is able to be used safely on humans there will probably be controversy and many will be afraid of making "Cyborgs". I wonder if this technology will be allowed by the government and how many people will be against the possibilities of this science.
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