
Researcher Controls Another Person's Brain Over the Internet - cleverjake
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/researcher-controls-another-persons-brain-over-the-internet/?smid=tw-share&_r=1
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csense
Can this technology write to the thinking parts of the brain?

If the answer is "yes," then this can augment human thinking capabilities --
the rest is just improving bitrates of the human <-> computer channel and
writing better software. Both of which are challenging and rewarding research
areas, to be sure. But they sound a lot more like straightforward engineering
with predictable improvements from research investment, rather than requiring
basic research / fundamental discoveries.

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pygy_
No, see my other comment.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a very blunt tool, and, in this case, the
"mind reading" is really a binary switch that is triggered by thinking of
something that produces a broad, easily detectable EEG pattern.

At best, repetitive TMS (rTMS) can bee used to temporarily make a brain area
more or less active.

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azinman2
Gotta prove the concept and start somewhere....

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pygy_
That's just a publicity stunt, the methods used will not lead anywhere.

This is akin to lighting a fire in a jar and claiming you're on the way to
invent television.

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tuananh
I've seen brain surgery in movies, surgeon pokes into some part of brain
causing reaction.

If the above is true, I believe this technology would be totally do-able. I
even hope we can use it to boost our brain, that would be totally awesome.

If this day ever come true, brain security researcher would totally become the
hottest job ever :D

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tlarkworthy
actually they do this regularly in brain surgery. For treatment of parkinsons
they place a device that stimulates the damaged part. The device can be turned
on and off and the amplitude and frequency of the stimulation can be altered.

A misplacement device or wrong frequency means loss of high level cognitive
function (e.g. the patient can't talk, or move part of their body). Hence this
type of operation is done with the patient awake, so the surgeon can fiddle
with placement and frequency knobs and ask the patient questions in real time.
I have seen videos of a person losing the ability to talk, then the surgeon
changing something and they can speak again. The surgeon dialled down the
device and the patient started shaking from parkinsons, then turn it up and
fix the shaking.

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sz4kerto
It's quite an old story, and it's not that interesting I believe. All the
components have been available for a while (external stimulation of the
nervous system, recognizing EEG patterns, etc.). This experiment is mostly
designed to make these things interesting to the general public, not because
it's scientifically important or because it represents a big step forward
towards controlling or understanding the nervous system/the brain.

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r0h1n
A person interfaces to another person over the Internet, and gets him to do
something with his body involuntarily, and you think it's not "that
interesting"?

All I can say is you must be living in a truly advanced world :)

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pygy_
It could have been done twenty years ago, and it will not progress beyond what
is shown here: causing a given muscle to twitch.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation is inherently imprecise and brutish. It
causes all the neurons in the target brain area (3-4 cm^3) to discharge at
once. Depending on the intensity of the stimulation, you can recruit more or
less neurons, but it is not selective.

For most of the brain, it just disrupts the activity for less than a second,
causing a "virtual lesion". This is useful for brain mapping research, but
that's it.

When you zap the motor cortex, it also sends action potentials down the spine,
which in turn stimulate the motor neurons then the muscles.

The hardware is bulky and unpractical [0]. You could maybe use two coils per
brain hemisphere, and then, you must stimulate areas distant from one another.

For the foreseeable future the only mind control techniques are propaganda and
manipulative behavior, with some drugs sprinkled in for good measure. No need
to worry about this.

[0]
[https://www.google.com/search?q=transcranial+magnetic+stimul...](https://www.google.com/search?q=transcranial+magnetic+stimulation)

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pmarca
I don't care what that lunatic Alexander Graham Bell says, and I don't care
what stupid little one-time demos he has in his lab, the telephone is never
going to take off.

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pygy_
This approach is a dead end.

The electric resistance of the skull is way too high to send any useful
information through electric stimulation, and magnetic stimulation is
inherently blunt.

For the same reason, the complexity of the information that you can get with
EEG is very limited. There's a lot of noise, and the spatial resolution is
very coarse.

Useful brain to brain communication requires invasive surgery, in order to put
sensors and stimulation electrodes next to the cortex. It will happen, and it
will be revolutionary, but the method described in the article is not a
progress in that direction.

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kghose
We've been doing that for millenia. It's called writing and reading.

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pmarca
Right. That's exactly the same.

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codecrusade
Is this even possible?- This looks like a big Farce

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Sam121
First of all feel happy to read that we can control another person's brain
over the internet, second best thing is the one of the researcher is an Indian
people. Here i am not target any other but sharing my happiness.These type of
extraordinary people give my country and other's a new way of thinking.New
technologies are coming day by day. yesterday i read on HN about Elon Musk and
Water car. People are going to more innovative and we can also try. Some time
one fear always run in my mind and that is every good have bad part SO we have
to take care of all these innovation other wise people can take a wrong use of
it. Result will be very bad and only poor will suffer.

