A team of researchers have demonstrated for first time that video games could be played with direct brain stimulation without any sensory cues like touch, vision, or hearing.
The development may not sound new to those who watched Keanu Reeves plugging his brain into the virtual world in the Matrix film series. In reality, the researchers from University of Washington have shown that the fantasy could come true one day.
Video Games Played Directly Through Brain
In the recent study, investigators have demonstrated that humans can play a two dimensional video game with the help of stimulations from the brain.
The participants were asked to pass through 21 mazes moving either downward or forward. They were supposed to sense and follow the visual stimulations artifact known as a phosphene, which is in the form of bars or blobs of light.
The researchers used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for generating phosphene to guide participants on whether to move forward or downward. TMS is a renowned technique used to stimulate targeted regions of the brain noninvasively by placing a magnetic coil near the skull.
Rajesh Rao, the senior author of the study from UW said that by far, virtual reality was performed through gadgets, goggles and handsets; however, they were possible only with the help of the brain.
Artificial Information Processed Directly By Brain
The researcher added that the study was aimed at finding out whether the brain is capable of directly processing the artificial information that has not been experienced before without relying on the sensory cues. Rao noted that the answer was affirmative.
It is noted in the study that five participants were able to navigate through the mazes with 92 percent accuracy when they were given brain stimulation opposed to 15 percent when they performed the task without guidance. It was also observed that the participants were able to perform the task better over time.
Darby Losey, the lead author of the study said that his team is trying to give sixth sense to humans.
"So much effort in this field of neural engineering has focused on decoding information from the brain. We're interested in how you can encode information into the brain," added Losey, in a press release.
The study published online in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI on Nov. 16.
