I am thinking you’ll read this story

One man makes another move just by thought

Shades of Darth Vader and demonic possession?

Brain researchers say that for the first time one person has remotely triggered another person’s movement, a flicking finger, through a signal sent to him by thought.

On Aug. 12, University of Washington researcher Rajesh Rao sent the finger- flicking brain signal to his colleague, Andrea Stocco, in a first demonstration of human- to- human brain signaling, a university announcement said.

A video of the experiment shows Rao observing a video game gunbattle while wearing an electrical brainsignal reading cap. By imagining his right finger flicking during the game, he triggered a cannon- firing keystroke by Stocco, who sat in a distant lab, wearing a cap designed to send magnetic stimulation signals to his brain. In effect, Rao’s thought was transferred across the campus, via the Internet, to trigger the motion in Stocco. He described it as feeling like an involuntary twitch, according to the announcement.

“The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains,” Stocco said, in a statement.

The announcement follows a rapid series of advances in the field of brain- computer interfaces aimed at helping paralyzed patients regain the power of motion. Paralyzed patients demonstrated the control of robot arms using signals from brain implants last year, for example. And researchers at Duke University and Harvard have demonstrated the transfer of brain signals between rats, and from a person to a rat, as well. So- called “transcranial magnet- ic stimulation,” which sends magnetic pulses to the brain, has also become a treatment for neurological ailments such as Parkinson’s.

The researchers received approval from the university’s medical ethics board before proceeding. Outside researchers such as Duke University’s Miguel Nicolelis note that similar experiments have used computers to deliver magnetic signals before, triggering involuntary motions. What is new here is the use of a signal picked up from one person’s brain to spur the motion.

“What they did is like using a phone signal to trigger a magnetic jolt to the brain,” says Nicolelis. “It’s not a true brain- tobrain interface where you would have communication of signals between people. This is one- way,” Nicolelis says. “So, I would say it is a little early to declare victory on creating a true human brain interface.”

“The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains.”

Andrea Stocco, University of Washington researcher