Author of Why We Snap
Human Brainwaves
SAN DIEGO—The most fundamental question of how information is coded and processed in the brain is being re-examined, and the controversy drew an overflow crowd of neuroscientists to participate in an intense debate at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in San Diego.
The internet is abuzz with reports of neuroscientists linking the human brain to computers to eliminate the clickety keyboard and empower us to control personal electronic devices or manipulate robotic arms. But the science beneath the sizzle doesn’t support all the sensational claims, and there are significant practical hurdles.
Unless you have a medical condition that can be helped by deep brain stimulation, or you need a prosthetic, would you want anyone to drill a hole through your skull to embed a computer chip in your brain? It is also difficult to imagine a swimming cap studded with EEG electrodes becoming the next fashion rage, but even if wearing such a bizarre device in public did not provoke 911 calls, how much thinking zipping through the trillions of neural circuits inside your cerebral cortex can be gleaned from the weak electric fields swirling over your entire scalp?
Researchers reported this week in the journal Scientific Reports, that they are able to identify differences in brain connectivity in people who are addicted to internet gaming. Most appropriately, scientists are able to do this by tapping into the brain’s Wi-Fi-like electrical signals radiating through gamer’s skulls. After sampling only 10 minutes of brainwave patterns picked up by electrodes on the scalp while the gamer sits quietly doing nothing but letting his mind wander, the team of researchers at Seoul National University in Korea find that waves of electrical activity in the brains of people who are addicted to internet gaming are different. (All the subjects in the experiment were male.)
Experts call the technology a “significant achievement,” but critics say the risks may not be justified.
The new brain-computer interface enables HB to select letters on a computer screen using her mind alone, spelling out words at a rate of one letter every 56 seconds, to share her thoughts. Credit: Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht
SAN DIEGO—A wireless device that decodes brain waves has enabled a woman paralyzed by locked-in syndrome to communicate from the comfort of her home, researchers announced this week at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
Whether or not a competitor stands on the podium wearing an Olympic metal can depend on a thousandth of a second difference in finishing time. Greater physical performance may not be what separate winners from losers when the margin is that close. Instead, it can be something beyond the competitor’s will–brainwaves.
Typically we are introduced to the nervous system by analogy to an electrical circuit, like a door bell or a telephone line carrying a signal rapidly over long distance to activate a specific process. Never mind that electrical impulses are not transmitted through nerve axons anything like electrons flowing through a copper wire, this electronic circuit analogy is useful up to a point. If you want to understand how the brain works at a more complex level, you are going to need a new analogy, and if you play an acoustic guitar you’ll find it under your fingertips.