Researchers from the University of Washington have successfully developed a brain-to-brain connection over the internet. This allows one user to move the hand of the other person solely through the use of the connection.

Researchers successfully replicated a direct brain-to-brain connection between pairs of people as part of a scientific study following the team's initial demonstration a year ago.  Their initial study was only on brain-to-brain communication.

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Their new study involves six people and shows they were able to transmit signals from one person's brain over the internet, and use the signals to control the hand motions of another person within a split second of sending that signal.

"The new study brings our brain-to-brain interfacing paradigm from an initial demonstration to something that is closer to a deliverable technology," said co-author Andrea Stocco.

Stocco is a research assistant professor of psychology and a researcher at UW's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences.

She adds that since they've replicated their methods with considerable success, they know they can work reliably with walk-in participants.

Stocco works with collaborator Rajesh Rao, a UW professor of computer science and engineering, who's also lead author of the study.

The team combined two kinds of noninvasive instruments and fine-tuned software to connect the human brains in real time.

One participant was connected to an electroencephalograph that read brain activity and sent electrical pulses through the Internet.

The second participant wore a swim cap with a transcranial magnetic stimulation coil placed near the part of the brain that controls hand movements.

With this setup, a person can move the hand of the other just by thinking about it.

With a considerable grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, the team is exploring more uses for their process. One of these uses is brain tutoring in which knowledge is transferred directly from the brain of a teacher to a student.

TagsBrain-to-brain connection, hand movements, Andrea Stocco