Researchers at the University are developing ‘brain-to-brain’ communication

**A team of researchers at Warwick’s Institute of Digital Healthcare is working to develop real-life telepathy: ‘brain-to-brain’ communication technology.**

Headed by Professor Christopher James, the team are using Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology to create equipment that allows for limited brain-to-brain communication via a machine.

They aim to use this technology to help those with severe motor impairment communicate with the outside world.

The process is complicated, to say the least. Essentially, electrodes attached to the brain read signals which are then relayed back to a machine, which expresses them through the medium of flashing LEDs.

In many cases, sufferers of locked-in syndrome that have been left unable to communicate with the outside world are still cognitively functional, meaning that they can still send signals through the brain to move certain body parts.

What the researchers do is ascribe meanings to certain actions – for example, ‘yes’ for signals to the left leg, ‘no’ for signals to the right arm – and even though movement is impossible, the electrodes detect the impulses. This is effectively non-physical communication.
The process gets even more complex: Professor James hooked up his daughter to another machine and, again using electrodes and BCI transmitted the LED lights from the first person straight into her visual cortex. As the technology becomes more sophisticated, it reads complex signals more adeptly, making for intricate brain-to-brain communication that goes beyond binary yes-or-no answers.

The healthcare implications of this technology are extensive. It can allow totally paralysed people to communicate with their carers and loved ones and it can rehabilitate stroke victims by strengthening neural pathways (sometimes allowing them to regain lost muscle control).

It has also been touted as a new way to combat epilepsy: in a University of Warwick video on the subject, Professor James explained that by reading the electronic signals in the brain, BCI can act as an “early-warning system” for epileptic seizures. Prof. James hopes that, eventually, “we might even be able to stop [epilepsy] through an implantable device”.

The possibilities are almost limitless, but the technology is not fully understood yet, and there have been cases of brains rejecting foreign implants. Professor James admitted that it is a “matter of balancing the benefits with the costs, both monetary and health wise”.

Professor James described his main aim: “taking BCI out of the lab and into the home” by making it more accessible to those who need it. The main issues, he explains, are that BCI is very expensive, and requires specialist staff to operate.

However, commercial versions of BCI exist, though they are not geared towards healthcare or rehabilitation. These versions are primarily marketed as gaming technology, with some surprisingly inexpensive options.

The bizarre and slightly dystopian EmotivEPOC, for example, which has been out for almost four years, allows players to control Android apps with brain activity. It costs less than 300 US dollars, and allows players to telepathically shoot down spaceships.