WIKIMEDIA, GENGISKANHGLinking the brains of multiple animals into a single “brainet” may be key to efficiently solving problems with brain-machine interfaces (BMIs), according to two new studies from the group of Miguel Nicolelis at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. In the first, the researchers used electrodes to link the brains of three monkeys to a computer and allowed each animal to contribute their thoughts to controlling an image of a robotic arm on a screen in front of them. In a second study, on rats, the team linked the rodents’ brains not just to a computer, but to one another, using electrodes to both record and stimulate neural activity, then trained the rodents to synchronize their thoughts.
The results of both sets of experiments, published yesterday (July 9) in Scientific Reports, represent the first “living computers” and demonstrate that animal brains may be useful in performing tasks, such as information storage and pattern recognition. “This is incredible,” Andrea Stocco of the University of Washington in Seattle told New Scientist. “We are sampling different neurons from different animals and putting them together to create a superorganism.”
Nicolelis and his colleagues created the monkey brainet by implanting electrode arrays into the animals’ motor cortices. The researchers then showed the animals images of a robotic arm on the screen and gave each monkey control over certain parts of its movement—either a single axis (x or y) or two dimensions (x-y, y-z, or x-z). When the ...
