Non-invasive transmission of sensorimotor information in humans using an EEG/focused ultrasound brain-to-brain interface

PLoS One. 2017 Jun 9;12(6):e0178476. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178476. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

We present non-invasive means that detect unilateral hand motor brain activity from one individual and subsequently stimulate the somatosensory area of another individual, thus, enabling the remote hemispheric link between each brain hemisphere in humans. Healthy participants were paired as a sender and a receiver. A sender performed a motor imagery task of either right or left hand, and associated changes in the electroencephalogram (EEG) mu rhythm (8-10 Hz) originating from either hemisphere were programmed to move a computer cursor to a target that appeared in either left or right of the computer screen. When the cursor reaches its target, the outcome was transmitted to another computer over the internet, and actuated the focused ultrasound (FUS) devices that selectively and non-invasively stimulated either the right or left hand somatosensory area of the receiver. Small FUS transducers effectively allowed for the independent administration of stimulatory ultrasonic waves to somatosensory areas. The stimulation elicited unilateral tactile sensation of the hand from the receiver, thus establishing the hemispheric brain-to-brain interface (BBI). Although there was a degree of variability in task accuracy, six pairs of volunteers performed the BBI task in high accuracy, transferring approximately eight commands per minute. Linkage between the hemispheric brain activities among individuals suggests the possibility for expansion of the information bandwidth in the context of BBI.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Biofeedback, Psychology*
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Brain Mapping*
  • Electroencephalography*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Multimodal Imaging
  • ROC Curve
  • Synaptic Transmission / physiology*
  • Task Performance and Analysis
  • User-Computer Interface*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Institute for Information & communications Technology Promotion (IITP) grant funded by the Korea government (Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning; MSIP, 10045452), and the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea (MSIP, NRF-2015M3C7A1065049). This study was also supported by a Grant of Global Frontier R&D Program on Human-centered Interaction for Coexistence (MSIP, Republic of Korea, NRF-2012M3A6A3055707). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.