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Here with art
view is the first rat, known as the 'encoder', was taught to find water in its
cage by responding to a light and pressing a particular lever.
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Its brain was connected to a second animal, known as the 'decoder', which was not given the light signals. ‘In theory, you could imagine that a combination of brains could provide solutions that individual brains cannot achieve by themselves.' Scientists have developed a crude form of telepathy in animals by enabling a pair of rats to pass instructions using only their mind.
Using microchips implanted in their
brains to communicate, the rats were able to collaborate and solve simple
puzzles, even though in one experiment they were thousands of miles apart. He
said it could even lead to one animal incorporating anther sense of 'self',
although there are fears it could result in the development of mind control.
In
the experiments, published in the journal Scientific Reports, microscopic
electrodes implanted into the rats' brains enabled one animal to pass on
instructions to the other, even though it was in a separate cage. The first
rat, known as the 'encoder', was taught to find water in its cage by responding
to a light and pressing a particular lever. Its brain was connected to a
second animal, known as the 'decoder', which was not given the light signals.
Instead,
the second animal relied solely on the brain instructions, but when stimulated
still pressed the right lever to receive a reward 70 per cent of the time - far
more often than it would have by chance, demonstrating they had been guided by
the other rat's mind. Instead, the second animal relied solely on the brain
instructions, but when stimulated still pressed the right lever to receive a
reward 70 per cent of the time - far more often than it would have by chance,
demonstrating they had been guided by the other rat's mind. 'We detected
cortical neurons that responded to both sets of whiskers.
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Its brain was connected to a second animal, known as the 'decoder', which was not given the light signals. ‘In theory, you could imagine that a combination of brains could provide solutions that individual brains cannot achieve by themselves.' Scientists have developed a crude form of telepathy in animals by enabling a pair of rats to pass instructions using only their mind.
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'These experiments was repeated with another pair of rats, one in the US city of
Durham, North Carolina, the other in Natal, Brazil.
A still from a video
released by Nicolelis Laboratory explaining the logistics of the experiment remarkably,
the communication between the rats seemed to be two-way.
The encoder rat
did not receive a full reward if the decoder made a wrong choice, and as a
result, became more decisive and generated clearer brain signals. ‘They saw
that when the decoder rat committed an error, the encoder basically changed
both its brain function and behaviour to make it easier for its partner to get
it right,' said Dr Nicolelis, who claimed this suggested a 'behavioural
collaboration' between the pair of rats.
Duke University Medical Centre
neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis led the study, published in Scientific Reports
a second test involved pairs of rats distinguishing between narrow and wide
openings using their whiskers. Again, signals transmitted from one rat
helped the other take the right action to obtain a reward.
Evidence from this
study suggested that the decoder rat began to develop a double identity, by
picking up sensations from two sets of whiskers - its own and those of its partner.
‘Our studies of the sensory cortex of the decoder rats in these experiments
showed that the decoder's brain began to represent in its tactile cortex not
only its own whiskers, but the encoder rat's whiskers, too,' said Dr Nicolelis.
By recording brain signals from one rat and transmitting them over the Internet
to the other, scientists were able to alter the second rodent's behaviour
despite the vast distance.
British expert Professor Christopher James, from the
University of Warwick, who has conducted similar research, said: 'We are far
from a scenario of well-networked rats around the world uniting to take us over,
the stimulation is crude and specific. 'As for the ethics, I struggle to
think of any applications that would not have ethical issues.' Like speech to
type with future technologies sleep dreams to adaptations make for very interesting
interactions with in art world.
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