The team created a direct brain-to-brain interface (BBI) connection to enable pairs of participants to play the question-and-answer game by transmitting signals from one brain to the other over the Internet.
The lead author was Andrea Stocco, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology and a researcher at University of Washington's (UW) Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences. One of the co-authors is Prof. Rajesh Rao, from Computer Science and Engineering at UW, specializing brain computer interfaces (BCI). The team has been collaborating since 2011.
Stocco believes that this is the most complex brain-to-brain experiment achieved so far in humans, and the first experiment showing that two brains can be linked to allow one person to guess what the other is thinking.
Thoughts transmitted through visual signals
The activity works by enabling conscious experiences to be communicated through visual signals.
To play the game, two participants sit in darkened rooms nearly a mile apart. Each sees a screen. The "respondent" wears a cap connected to an electroencephalography (EEG) machine that records electrical brain activity. The "inquirer" has a magnetic coil positioned behind the head.
The respondent is shown an object on a computer screen, while the inquirer sees a list of possible objects and associated questions.
The inquirer clicks a mouse, which sends a question to the respondent. The respondent answers "yes" or "no" by focusing his or her mind on one of two flashing LED lights attached to the monitor. The lights flash at different frequencies.
A "no" or "yes" answer both send a signal to the inquirer via the Internet. The signal activates the magnetic coil worn by the inquirer.
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