Mind Over Matter: Controlling Individual Neurons By Your Thoughts

Neuro-scientists in UCLA and Caltech were able to show that people can deliberately “regulate the activity of their neurons to intentionally alter the outcome of stimulation.” As argued by the video below the tests conducted by Christof Koch, Itzhak Fried and Moran Cerf show that thought can indeed overcome external reality, or as Koch puts it himself - in this part of the brain “idealism trumps realism.” The reason why such research is important is because it may be used to produce future technologies which harness a direct brain-machine interface based on human thought, intention and imagery such as memories and even dreams…

Synopsis: Five years ago, neuroscientist Christof Koch of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), neurosurgeon Itzhak Fried of UCLA, and their colleagues discovered that a single neuron in the human brain can function much like a sophisticated computer and recognize people, landmarks, and objects, suggesting that a consistent and explicit code may help transform complex visual representations into long-term and more abstract memories. Now Koch and Fried, along with former Caltech graduate student and current postdoctoral fellow Moran Cerf, have found that individuals can exert conscious control over the firing of these single neurons—despite the neurons’ location in an area of the brain previously thought inaccessible to conscious control—and, in doing so, manipulate the behavior of an image on a computer screen. (Source: CalTech)

Tagged as: brain machine interface, Brain–computer interface, Human brain, mind control, mind reading, neuro science