Abstract
Previous studies have indicated that the expression of CCN3, a member of the CCN family of proteins, was tightly regulated during central nervous development and was associated with acquisition of cognitive functions in rats (Perbal, Mol Pathol 54(2):57–79, 2001; Su et al. Sheng Li Xue Bao 52(4):290–294, 2000) therefore suggesting that CCN3 might be involved in higher levels of physiological communication in the brain. In spite of the considerable amount of progress made into the understanding of neuronal organization and communication, reducing the knowledge gap between brain cellular biology and behavioral studies remains a huge challenge. Mind-to-mind communication has been the subject of numerous science fiction writings, intense research and emotional debates for many years. Scientists have tried for a long time to achieve transmission of messages between living subjects via non intrusive protocols. Thanks to the great progress made in imagery and neurosciences, another dimension of neuronal function in communication has now been documented. Two recent experimental demonstrations of direct brain to brain communication without physical contact (Grau et al. (2014) Conscious brain-to-brain communication in humans using non-invasive technologies. PLoS One. Aug 19;9(8)- - Rao et al. (2014) A direct brain-to-brain interface in humans. PLoS One. Nov 5;9(11)) pave the road to more sophisticated applications that could profoundly affect communications of humans with other humans, animals and machines. Although the wide use of such applications might seem a long way off, they raise quite a number of ethical, legal and societal issues.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Are we living in the age of the brain? By Phillip Ball in December 22, 2014 issue of Prospect, the magazine of leading ideas.http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/blogs/philip-ball/are-we-living-in-the-age-of-the-brain
The Connectome Debate: Is Mapping the Mind of a Worm Worth It? 2012 Scientific American.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/c-elegans-connectome/?print=true
see Open message to the European Commission concerning the Human Brain Project. http://www.neurofuture.eu/
Brain Hackers Beware: Scientist Says tDCS Has No Effect. http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/ethics/brain-hackers-beware-scientist-says-tdcs-has-no-effect
Warning over electrical brain stimulation. http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27343047?print=true
EEG here is imagery-controlled electroencephalographic changes
submitted may 28, 2014, published August 19, 2014
submitted July 21, 2014, published November 5, 2014
« hola » is « hello » in Catalan and Spanish
« ciao » is « good bye » or « hello » in Italian
Direct Brain-to-Brain Communication in Humans: A Pilot Study August 12, 2013 http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~rao/brain2brain/experiment.html
after Neil Armstrong. First landing on the moon, July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC. Apollo 11 mission. « One Small Step » - Corrected Transcript and Commentary. http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.step.html
References
Clery D (2015) Science 347(6221):499
Deadwyler SA, Berger TW, Sweatt AJ, Song D, Chan RH, Opris I, Gerhardt GA, Marmarelis VZ, Hampson RE (2013) Donor/recipient enhancement of memory in rat hippocampus. Front Syst Neurosci. 7:120. doi:10.3389/fnsys.2013.00120
Grau C, Ginhoux R, Riera A, Nguyen TL, Chauvat H, Berg M, Amengual JL, Pascual-Leone A, Ruffini G (2014) Conscious brain-to-brain communication in humans using non-invasive technologies. PLoS One 9(8):e105225. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105225, eCollection 2014
Kim JS, Kaiser M (2014) From Caenorhabditis elegans to the human connectome: a specific modular organization increases metabolic, functional and developmental efficiency. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 369(1653). doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0529
O’Doherty JE, Lebedev MA, Ifft PJ, Zhuang KZ, Shokur S, Bleuler H, Nicolelis MA (2011) Active tactile exploration using a brain-machine-brain interface. Nature 479(7372):228–231. doi:10.1038/nature10489
Pais-Vieira M1, Lebedev M, Kunicki C, Wang J, Nicolelis MA (2013) A brain-to-brain interface for real-time sharing of sensorimotor information. Sci Rep 3:1319. doi:10.1038/srep01319
Perbal B (2001) NOV (nephroblastoma overexpressed) and the CCN family of genes: structural and functional issues. Mol Pathol 54(2):57–79
Perbal B (2014) Communication is the key. :part 2: direct to consumer genetics in our future daily life ? J Cell Commun Signal 8(4):275–287. doi:10.1007/s12079-014-0258-2
Rao RP, Stocco A, Bryan M, Sarma D, Youngquist TM, Wu J, Prat CS (2014) A direct brain-to-brain interface in humans. PLoS One 9(11):e111332. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111332, eCollection 2014
Ruffini G, Wendling F, Merlet I, Molaee-Ardekani B, Mekonnen A, Salvador R, Soria-Frisch A, Grau C, Dunne S, Miranda PC (2013) Transcranial current brain stimulation (tCS): models and technologies. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng 21(3):333–345
Su BY, Cai WQ, Xiong Y, Zhang CG, Perbal B (2000) Relationships between learning and memory and expression of nov gene of rats Sheng Li Xue Bao 52(4):290–294
Trimper JB, Wolpe PR, Rommelfanger KS (2014) When «I» becomes «We»: ethical implications of emerging brain-to-btrain interfacing technologies. Front Neuroeng 7:4. doi:10.3389/fneng.2014.00004, eCollection 2014
Yoo SS, Kim H, Filandrianos E, Taghados SJ, Park S (2013) Non-invasive brain-to-brain interface (BBI): establishing functional links between two brains. PLoS One 8(4):e60410. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0060410
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to H. Yeger and Annick for their comments and critical reading of the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Perbal, B. “Knock once for yes, twice for no”. J. Cell Commun. Signal. 9, 15–18 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12079-015-0273-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12079-015-0273-y