This has not been published as a paper yet but the researchers did a press release and my write up will be based on their press-release (which can be read here).
Two subjects were involved. The first (subject A), had a complex EEG cap on his head (this measures the electrical activity at many places throughout the brain by attaching very sensitive sensors to the persons head). The second subject (subject B), on the other side of campus, wore a piece of equipment that performed "transcranial magnetic stimulation", which, as the name suggests uses magnetic fields to stimulate an area of the brain through the skull. This piece of equipment was placed directly over the part of the brain that is known to be responsible for moving the right hand.
Subject A sat in front of a screen with a simple computer game on it but had no controls. The game required pressing "fire" at the right time to shoot something. Subject A was told to, not move his hand but imagine pressing his right hand to press the fire button (but of course had no controls to press). The brain activity of subject A was recorded by the EEG machine and was encoded and transmitted, via the internet, to the equipment on subject B's head. Once there, the equipment on subject B's head mimiced the exact brain activity that occured in subject A's brain.
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| Schematic of experiment set-up taken from here |
The end result?
When subject A imagined pressing fire, subject B involuntarily pressed fire without any control of his hand. In other words, subject A's thoughts were being used to control subjects B's body movement. Demonstrating brain-to-brain control, across the Internet!
This is the first ever human, non-invasive, brain-to-brain interface.
Science.
Is.
Rad.
Fact.
Here is a (albeit rather dull) youtube video put out by the researchers.
This researchers a quick to reassure the public that this is very far away from controlling someone's mind against their will.
