The lines of Code: Latest Trends in Brain Research

Human Brain has always been a mystery for both biologists and neuro-engineers. How did it evolve and how it functions is a major focus for many active scientists. With the advent of high computing efficiency and storage capacity combined with recent development in EEG and fMRI technologies interesting results are coming out. US has launched a new brain research initiative and is funding heavily in this field.

Researchers at MIT have been successful in manipulating memories in Mice’s brain and are furthering in incepting false memories in brain. This focus can lead to a situation screened in Transformer movie where a person who doesn’t know a particular skill can download a skill from internet directly to his brain just like today we download apps for out smart phone.

In Kyoto, Japan scientists have been successful in correlating fMRI scans with person’s dreams and now can claim with 60% accuracy what the dream was about. This accuracy further increases to 70% for a few selected items.

In University of Pennsylvania, one experiment was conducted where a bunch of school students were divided into three groups and presented with a set of objects. They were then asked to write down the uncommon use of these objects. One particular group was given slight electric stimulation on left prefrontal cortex which is supposed to act as a cognitive filter, other group on the right pre-frontal cortex and the third group was given a placebo on left pre-frontal cortex. It was found that the group of students which received the shock on left pre-frontal cortex missed only 8 out of 60 objects while the other two groups missed 15 out of 60. This group was also to come up with the answers on an average of 1 second faster than the other two groups which is a big margin of time in psychological research. It is hypothised that high level of cognitive control is detrimental in coming up with uncommon and creative ideas.

In University of Minnesota, Twin cities scientists have come up with an EEG technique through which they are able to differentiate between different brain imageries (e.g. closed fist, arm etc) and use this to control a quadrotor. The researchers are also working on a bi-directional Brain Computer Interface (BCI).

Prof. Rajesh Rao along with his group has already developed the first Brain to Brain computer interface where he plays a computer game and the neural activities of his brain recorded by EEG device is sent over internet to remote laboratory on the campus where his colleague receives the magnetic stimulation through TMS and he clicks on a keyboard unwillingly.

NASA has formed a dedicated group in this field named ‘Extension of Human Senses’ and is working progressively in this area.

The progress so far in this field is inspiring and promises great advancements in future. It is not long in future where physically impaired people will use such technologies to become cyborgs or MARS rovers will be directly controlled from Earth by a trained person.