Scientists from Duke University and Brazil claim wires connecting one rodent to another can allow communication spanning continents via the internet. Professor Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, led a team of researchers who demonstrated that it is possible to transmit instructions from one animal to another by brain-to-brain communication, a process akin to telepathy.

Brain-to-brain communication could be the start of  organic-based computing based on networks of interconnected brains. Pairs of laboratory rats were able to communicate with each other using microscopic electrodes implanted into their brains. This occurred as part of an experiment where the two rats had to work together in order to receive a reward (see video at source).

The researchers had this to say: “as far as we can tell, these findings demonstrate for the first time that a direct channel for behavioral information exchange can be established between two animal’s brains without the use of the animal’s regular forms of communication.” One rat in each pair, assigned to be the encoder, detected the signals of where to find a food reward and had to communicate these instructions to a second decoder rat. Once the second rat followed the first rat’s instructions, both rats would receive a reward. These communications were able to be sent over the internet, with rats at one lab in Brazil communicating with rats at the other lab in North Carolina.

Professor Nicolelis inserted micro-electrode implants into the rats’ brains to record the neuron activity associated with decision-making. Putting these signals through a computer encoder transmitted them to the second rat via wires connected to another set of micro-electrode implants. The second rat learned how to decode the signals quickly for its own use.  Each rat was trained to find water in its cage based on the type of signals they were given. However, only the encoder rat was actually exposed to the signals, which it had to pass on  correctly to the decoder rat. The decoder rats managed to find the reward in about 70% of trials.

What is most interesting, however, was the scientists found that when two rats were paired up they quickly established a rapport based on  some sort of sensory feedback. If the second rat failed at its task, the first rat would modify what it was transmitting to help the second rat. Both rats worked together since they were sufficiently motivated by the reward.

Future work could encode entire thoughts, hopefully connecting more brains to each other, boosted by the effect of sensory feedback rapport.  Professor Christopher James of the University of Warwick, who conducts similar research, said that the technique is still very crude since it relies only on monitoring one part of the rat’s brain for its nerve activity. “Leap into the future by, say, 50 years: if you could stimulate many multiple sites, and if we knew what patterns to use and when, then we may well be able to conjure up complex ‘thoughts’,”  Professor James said. “Abstract thoughts are harder to read and represent; but not impossible technologically.  We can already do that … we just need to understand the brain better.” Professor Nicolelis hopes brain-to-brain communication will expand the capabilities of  intelligence one day, saying “we cannot even predict what kinds of emergent properties would appear when animals begin interacting as part of a brain-net. In theory, you could imagine that a combination of brains could provide solutions that individual brains cannot achieve by themselves.”

Mind-reading rodents: Scientists show ‘telepathic’ rats can communicate using brain-to-brain connections – The Independent

The neuroscience of addiction has been extensively studied, giving priceless insight into what is happening in the addict’s brain and what keeps people hooked on drug-seeking behavior. Most of the research, though, has been all about the chemical changes in the brain, delving into the molecular level of receptors, neurotransmitters, and reward pathways, etc. But a new approach is being taken from research focusing on extended applications of neuroscience, such as linking neuroscience and “social research and communication studies.” In this video, primary researcher Emily Falk explains the work that is being done at the University of Michigan to try to use the brain as a predictor for one’s ability and commitment to quitting smoking.

It seems your brain may be less committed to quitting than you are! As explained, results show that an fMRI scan of the brain while a smoker is watching “Quit smoking!!!” advertisements can be useful in predicting the person’s future success in really quitting. The study recruited 28 heavy smokers from an anti-smoking program, and while the researchers administered a questionnaire about the subjects’ smoking tendencies and intentions to quit, the truly informative variable seemed to be the fMRI scans, with the main findings being in the medial prefrontal cortex. Neural activity in this region of the brain was significantly linked to reductions in smoking behavior over the month following the scan. Apparently, those who had shown high activation had greatly reduced their amount of daily cigarettes after a month, in comparison to those who did not show prefrontal activation. This is believed to be because the prefrontal cortex is linked with self-reflection and assessment, decision-making and valuation, and “thinking about your future self.”

The main application of this finding will probably not be fMRI scans for all those planning on quitting to assess their potentially predictable success – “Hm, not much medial prefrontal cortex activation for you, it’s not looking good, you probably shouldn’t even bother trying. Give it a year or two, maybe your brain will be more resolved then.” Hopefully this isn’t the case! As explained by Emily Falk in the video, this research could instead be extremely useful for refining anti-smoking ads, to find out how to make them really effective by understanding how the brain reacts. I thought researcher’s intentions sounded extremely interesting- starting with the brain to answer important questions and change things in the stimulus accordingly, as opposed to our usual scientific approach in which the changes in the brain are seen as the outcome. Emily makes it quite apparent that she is very excited about it. Just bursting with enthusiasm.

Other research is being done using fMRI to better understand smoking tendencies. Researchers at Dartmouth College, led by senior investigator Todd Heatherton, published their findings on smoker’s brain scans in the January issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. They took fMRI scans of the brain while smokers and non-smokers watched movies containing scenes in which characters were smoking. Compared with nonsmokers, smokers showed greater activity in left anterior intraparietal sulcus and inferior frontal gyrus, regions involved in the simulation of contralateral hand-based gestures, when viewing scenes that included smoking compared to control scenes. The increased neural activation for smokers versus non-smokers is not too surprising, as researchers have been looking into things like this when studying mirror neurons, but it is a useful study that really highlights the physical part of addiction – the motor habit is something that needs to be broken perhaps just as much as the psychological addiction does. These two studies combined show us more about the cognitive and behavioral aspects of smoking addiction beyond the molecular level, and will hopefully point us in the direction of finally refining anti-smoking mechanisms to be truly influential and effective.

Spontaneous Action Representation in Smokers When Watching Movie Characters Smoke – Journal of Neuroscience.org

Resolved to quit smoking? Brain scans predict likely success- – University of Michigan The University Record Online

Smoke Scenes in Movies Light Up Smokers Brains – MedicineNet.com

Any dog lovers out there? Have you ever wanted to refute someone who claimed “dogs can’t really understand you?”  PBS program Dogs Decoded: NOVA asserts the idea that dogs are able to communicate with and understand humans better than any other animal that we know of.

When humans express an emotion, the right and left sides of their face show very different pictures. The right half is more expressive than the left when displaying all emotions, from happiness to anger to guilt. Therefore, humans have developed something called a “natural left gaze.” This means whenever we are presented with a face, we automatically look to our left to view the right side of their face to see a better display of their emotion. Recent studies with dogs have shown that they use this same mechanism when presented with a human’s face. Yet, when presented with a picture of another dog’s face, Fido treats it as if it is a picture of an object and randomly assesses the picture with no determined natural gaze.  Dogs are the only animals known to display a natural left gaze when presented with a human face, suggesting that they have evolved to understand our facial expressions.  Scientists are becoming more convinced that dogs are able to interpret our emotions better than many people think.

There are a few unique communication tools that only humans possess, such as eye gaze. Humans have almond-shaped eyes with white sclera surrounding the pupil so others are able to follow the direction of one’s gaze. We also use pointing as another communication tool that many other species are not able to utilize or comprehend. Cognitive psychologist Dr. Juliane Kaminski has been performing experiments with both chimps and dogs studying these two communication tactics.  When a chimp is presented with two cups upside down and Kaminski points at the cup containing a reinforcer (such as a food treat), the chimp is not able follow her point nor gaze to pick up the correct cup. Instead, Kaminski notes that chimps tend to make a decision before she even points, supporting the idea that they are not wired to comprehend human gestures. Yet Kaminski performs this same task with dogs and they are able to follow to where her finger is pointing and retrieve a reinforcer. Even when presented with only a gaze at the correct cup, dogs are often able to determine which one Kaminski is urging them to choose.

It’s interesting to think that dogs have evolved to advance the way they communicate with the species that has domesticated them.

Dogs Decoded: Nova – PBS special via Netflix