A brain-to-brain interface for real-time sharing of sensorimotor information

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Bioengineering
• Computational Biology

Background:

• Brain-to-brain interfaces (BTBIs) are emerging technologies for direct neural information exchange.
• Understanding inter-brain communication is crucial for advancing neuroscience and artificial intelligence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a functional brain-to-brain interface (BTBI) for real-time sensorimotor information transfer between rats.
• To investigate the potential of coupled brains for information processing and novel social interactions.

Main Methods:

• An "encoder" rat performed sensorimotor tasks involving stimulus selection.
• Cortical activity from the encoder rat was transmitted via intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) to a "decoder" rat.
• The decoder rat learned to perform the task based solely on the transmitted neural information.

Main Results:

• The decoder rat successfully learned to make behavioral selections guided by the encoder rat's brain activity.
• This established a functional, real-time transfer of behaviorally relevant sensorimotor information.
• A complex system was formed by coupling the two animal brains.

Conclusions:

• Brain-to-brain interfaces can facilitate the exchange, processing, and storage of information between multiple brains.
• BTBIs offer a platform for studying new forms of social interaction in animal models.
• This technology could serve as a basis for biological computing devices.