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Current State of Mind Control
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From the January 2007 Idaho Observer:
http://proliberty.com/observer/20070105.htm
The "Current" state of Mind Control
by Hari Heath
Mind control can be many things. Disciplining a child; selling a product through effective advertising; managing public education; imposing a coercive legal system; programming a given population with repetitive media information while excluding or diminishing alternative sources; torturing a prisoner until they confess to a crime they did not commit; or, more positively, engaging in a spiritual or mental practice which puts the mind in a peaceful, harmonious state.
For good or ill, mind control is the act of causing the mind to function according to a desired outcome.
In the history of human governance, almost everything has been tried to bring the will of the people in line with the will of the governing class. Fear or trauma-based conditioning from wars, public executions, to prisons has brought on the consequences of non-compliance. Feudal systems, from the more ancient overlords and serfs, to our current tax-and-regulate schemes, have laid humanity's essential productivity, hearth and home, quite profitably at the feet of the feudal governors. Benevolence, whether promised or actual, is the more placid avenue of control. From medieval breadlines to welfare, tax credits and research grants, the direction of society has been controlled by those who hand out the dole.
Ultimately in this age, the goal of upper echelon government operators is to control the mind and achieve "consent of the governed." Wars are fought to bend the will of the opponent. Eventually, war is terminated by either annihilation or treaty-a formal consent of the survivors.
New technology now offers tools to bend the will and the consequences for humanity are as far-reaching and serious as the use of the atomic bomb. Early research began over a century ago on devices to manipulate the mind. In the last few decades the "current" state of mind control has become well developed and is potentially devastating, considering who the primary holder of this new technology is: the military, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and their minions in the police state.
The recently released book, Controlling the Human Mind: The Technologies of Political Control or Tools for Peak Performance, by Dr. Nick Begich, the co-author of Angels Don't Play This HAARP, gives a telling report on electronic and frequency warfare.
What it reveals is shocking enough, but what is most shocking is what it doesn't reveal. Dr. Begich's book is largely a compilation of excerpts and analyses of two-and- three-decades old military and government documents, patents and similarly aged research reports. This is the unclassified stuff. Much of the current state of government's mind control apparatus is classified and is likely to remain so until well after it has achieved antiquity.
Chemistry and bioenergetics
Dr. Begich's work begins with a simple observation: Much of what we know about human health is chemistry, or the biochemical side of the human equation. Present medicine is focused on drug therapies. The emerging science of bioenergetics-the neural, magnetic and bioelectric component of our organism-has not received the same funding and focus as the more profitable pharmaceutical approach to health.
A relative handful of bioenergetic scientists have diligently applied themselves over the decades and can now produce some amazing results. Much of this new science is based on the recognition that various organs produce or respond to certain resonant frequencies. Detection can be accomplished by determining the body's frequency codes. The application of certain frequencies with specific modulation and pulsation can cause effects in the many bio-circuits of the body. The effects depend on many details that are naturally present in the realm of bioenergetic science, the devices used to achieve those effects and the intent of the device's operator.
Much of bioenergetic science has been focused on understanding the operation of the mind and healing the body. But the discoveries of those in the healing arts have not gone unnoticed by those engaged in the warfare and social control professions. The practical difference between these disparate interests is only a matter frequency choices, delivery systems and intent.
At the core
The level at which these effects begin are described by Dr. Begich: "Within living cells proteins exist that have specific three dimensional physical characteristics and forms. The form of proteins arise out of their unique order of amino acids, electrical charge and polarity. Sequences of amino acids have been found to coil or wind themselves into a helical spiraling shape called an alpha-helix. In electrical terms, coils and helices are inductors, transducers and antennas. These can change shape and act as on/off switches or perform binary functions, which are required for any computer to work whether it is your desktop or the human body functioning as a super computer. These coils and helixes are biological circuits serving the same kinds of functions as inorganic, nonliving electrical circuits...the use of light, sound, microwave, radio, television networks, computer systems or power grids, all of through which a pulse-modulated signal can be introduced, can be used to create a deliberate effect, or a side effect, impacting living organisms in neutral, positive or negative ways."
Brain states
Dr. Begich describes the brain states and their frequencies: "The first, beta waves, (13-35 Hertz, or pulses-per-second) are associated with normal activity. The high end of this range is associated with stress or agitated states, which can impair thinking or reasoning skills. The second group, alpha waves (8-12 Hertz), can indicate relaxation. Alpha frequencies are ideal for learning and focused mental functioning.
"The third, theta waves (4-7 Hertz), indicate mental imagery, access to memories and internal mental focus. This state is often associated with young children, behavioral modification and sleep/dream states.
"The last, ultra slow, delta waves (.5-3 Hertz), are found when a person is in deep sleep. The general rule is that the brain's predominant wave frequency will be lowest, in terms of pulses per second, when relaxed and highest when people are most alert or agitated."
As a simple explanation of the mind alteration process, Dr. Begich offers the following: "External stimulation of the brain by electromagnetic means can cause the brain to be entrained or locked into phase with an external signal generator. Predominant waves can be driven or pushed into new frequency patterns by external stimulation. In other words, the signal driver or impulse driver entrains the brain, overriding the normal frequency codes, and causing changes in the brain waves; which then cause changes in brain chemistry; which then cause changes in brain outputs in the form of thoughts, emotions or physical conditions. As you are driven, so you arrive..."
How far will they go?
Dr. Begich quotes John Alexander, author of Psychic Warrior, who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, "There are weapons systems that operate on the power of the mind and whose lethal capacity has already been demonstrated...The psychotronic weapon would be silent, difficult to detect, and would require only a human operator as a power source."
That was a dozen years ago. From a similar era: An "RF weapon currently under development is the high-powered, very low frequency (VLF) modulator. Working in the 20-35 KHz spectrum, the frequency emits from a 1-2 meter antenna dish to form a type of acoustic bullet. The weapon is especially convenient because the power level is easily adjustable. At its low setting, the acoustic bullet causes physical discomfort-enough to deter most approaching threats. Incrementally increasing the power nets an effect of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pains. The highest settings can cause a person's bones to literally explode internally. Aimed at the head, the resonating skull bones have caused persons to hear 'voices'. Researched by the Russian military more extensively than the U. S., the Russians actually offered the use of such a weapon to the FBI in the Branch Davidian standoff to make them think that 'God' was talking to them. Concerned with the unpredictability of what the voices might actually say to the followers, the FBI declined the offer."
The 1987 Report on the Attorney General's Conference on Less Than Lethal Weapons stated, "participants also discussed the use of various wavelengths and forms of administration of electromagnetic energy as a non-lethal weapon. A substantial amount of preliminary research has been conducted in this area...One conference participant noted that scientific knowledge of human physiology is progressing to the point where it may soon be possible to target specific physiologic systems with specific frequencies of electromagnetic radiation to produce much more subtle and fine-tuned effects than those produced by photic driving [using frequency pulsed light]...there is some evidence that sustained, extremely low frequency (ELF) radiation can produce nausea or disorientation."
Dr. Begich revealed, "In November, 1993, about 400 scientists gathered at John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab to discuss their work in developing non-lethal weapons technologies, including radio frequency radiation (RF), electromagnetic pulse (EMP), ELF fields, lasers and chemicals. The meeting was classified, and no detailed reports were ever publicly released. According to the press statements and the conference agenda (which was released) the programs developing the technologies had made significant advances. Enough advancement had been made to establish a secrecy veil and classify the conference. This conference took the whole program of non-lethal weapons a step forward by bringing the leading experts together for this event. The conference was sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory and focused on both military and law enforcement uses for these technologies."
What will we ever know?
How far has the federal government departed from the six articles in the Constitution and its two-dozen or so grants of federal power? Dr. Begich presents some telling details:
"In 2004 the United States government spent $7.2 billion to classify 15.6 million documents, which is almost double the 8.6 million records so classified in 2001. On the other end of the spectrum, in 2004, there were 28.4 million documents declassified down from 100 million in 2001, and the 204 million documents declassified in 1997. In 2006 even more significant information is held and never released while piles of files are classified, further limiting government accountability."
When will we ever know what government has done to us in our lifetimes? What kind of bureaucratic army handles millions of documents a year and how does a government that classifies millions of documents a year "establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty?"
Domestic "policy" for "adversaries?"
"On July 21, 1994, Dr. Christopher Lamb, Director of Policy Planning, issued a draft Department of Defense directive which would establish a policy for non-lethal weapons. The policy was to have taken effect January 1, 1995, and formally connected the military's non-lethal research to civilian law enforcement agencies.
"In interviews with members of the Defense Department, the development of this policy was confirmed. In those February 1995 discussions, it was discovered that these policies were internal and not subject to any public review process. In its current draft form, the policy gives highest priority to development of those technologies most likely to get dual use, i.e. law enforcement and military uses. According to this document, non-lethal weapons are to be used on the government's domestic 'adversaries'. The definition of 'adversary' has been significantly enlarged in the policy:
"The term 'adversary' is used above in its broadest sense, including those who are not declared enemies but who are engaged in activities we wish to stop. This policy does not preclude legally authorized domestic use of the non-lethal weapons by United States military forces in support of law enforcement."
The policy also clarifies that, "it is important that the public understand that just as lethal weapons do not achieve perfect lethality, neither will 'non-lethal' weapons always be capable of precluding fatalities and undesired collateral damage."
Early reports
A 1986 USAF report suggests, "The potential applications of artificial electromagnetic fields are wide ranging and can be used in many military or quasi-military situations... Some of these potential uses include dealing with terrorist groups, crowd control, controlling breaches of security at military installations, and antipersonnel techniques in tactical warfare. In all of these cases the EM systems would be used to produce mild to severe physiological disruption or perceptual distortion or disorientation. In addition, the ability of individuals to function could be degraded to such a point that they would be combat ineffective. Another advantage of electromagnetic systems is that they can provide coverage over large areas with a single system. They are silent and countermeasures to them may be difficult to develop..."
A Southwest Research Institute report stated in 1982 that: "Biotechnology research must consider the significant advances that can be made in electromagnetic radiation weapons and defenses that could be in place by the year 2000... Research is first needed to develop and apply methods for assessing pulsed RFR (radio frequency radiation) effects. Techniques are needed for depositing RFR at selected organ sites. Mathematical models and physical measurement capabilities must be developed to track, real time, RFR energy distributions within these organ sites as a function of physiological processes such as diffusion and blood flow. These studies will require prudent extrapolation of physical and physiological data obtained from laboratory animals to humans in operational environments."
And this was four and a score years ago!
The LIDA machine
In the mid-1960s, the LIDA machine used by the Soviets to interrogate U. S. POWs during the Vietnam War was captured. A powerful technology for its time, it advanced the U.S. government's interest in such devices. The LIDA machine's oscillating electromagnetic signals used a strobe light and auditory signals to entrain the prisoner's brain, putting them in a highly suggestive state where they were more willing to give up information.
Dr. Begich presents a number of research reports and patents which detail methods to: Deliver subliminal signals using very low or very high (inaudible) audio frequencies; reduce pain using pulsed electromagnetic signals; develop hearing with microwave energy; remotely monitor and alter brain waves; pulsed ultrasound to create sensory experiences; and beam focused Hypersonic Sound (HSS) which can directly target individuals up to 500 yards away, disabling them with decibels.
One of the more astounding elements of "progress" that Dr. Begich reports is that, "Researchers said they took a key first step toward creating electronic microchips that use living brain cells. The researchers said they had learned how to place embryonic brain cells in desired spots on silicone or glass chips and then induce the brain cells to grow along the desired path."
Another report, also from the early 1990s, states, "Scientists have succeeded for the first time in establishing a colony of human brain cells that divide and grow in laboratory dishes." This may pave the way to the "possibility that both brain cells and computer hardware could be built in the laboratories creating, perhaps, the first biologically augmented computers."
Who are these people?
Dr. Herman P. Schwan, a Nazi scientist during World War II, was brought into this country under "Operation Paperclip" and put to use at the Biological Warfare Laboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland. As late as 1995, he was working at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a principle reviewer and primary contributor to the Air Force's Radiofrequency Radiation Dosimetry Handbook from 1986. The handbook compiles five decades of research on mostly electromedical healing devices with the mathematics for calculating the RF radiation dosage effects in animals and humans. Two pages of the 29-page bibliography in the handbook cite Schwan's work. The difference between electromedical healing and warfare is only a matter of frequency and dosimetry.
Mankind Research Unlimited, Inc. (MRU) was a company involved in psychic and mind control research from the 1960s to the 80s. MRU and its affiliates "were researching psychic warfare, bioenergetic fields and the manipulation of energy in order to affect people."
They officially disavowed any connection with the CIA but much of their research, if not connected, was a parallel effort. The over 30 research subject areas for MRU listed by Dr. Begich are largely positive, healthy and enhancing of the human being, but the same information, in the wrong hands, can also be used to devastate and destroy.
Professor Michael Persinger conducted research for over 20 years in Ontario, using magnetic resonance to produce mystical experiences, out-of-body sensations and paranormal phenomena. He also studied the effects of ELF on memory and brain function. His research reveals that, "the brain can be altered with very little power, including that which is released from the natural geomagnetic activity of the Earth or via contemporary communications networks...within a very narrow set of variables, we can stimulate the sense of smell, taste, touch, sight or hearing in a manner that would not permit us to see the difference between the laboratory created experience and reality...by using the Earth's natural energy fields a signal could be generated at power levels consistent with the Earth's and would be hidden in the 'noise' created by the many manmade background radiating sources of energy."
A grand scale
The HAARP project in Alaska, which Dr. Begich has previously written about, can be exactly what Dr. Persinger suggested on a very large scale. Dr. Begich reports, "This capability exists today through the use of systems which can stimulate the ionosphere to return a pulsed signal, which at the right frequency, can override normal brain functions...energies used in HAARP were controllable and in some applications would be pulsed in the 1-20 Hertz range."
A chemical/RFR interface
Among the proposed military applications is the idea that biological or chemical agents could be used in conjunction with RFR techniques on targeted groups (see adversary definition above). "The idea expressed here is that depositing small amounts of chemicals in a person's body, in amounts below normal levels where negative effects are known to occur, will ensure they have no perceivable effect until radio frequency radiation (RFR) is introduced. Once introduced, the RFR creates physiological reactions, which are detrimental to the individual host. This would allow individuals who are not exposed to the chemicals to then enter the area of the RFR without harm to their own bodies. When an operator tunes the RFR in just the right way, changes are caused in the energy state of atoms, which cause chemical reactions in the body, which in turn manifest physiological or psychological changes, all based on frequency codes."
Hearing without ears
From hypersonic sound beams where the targeted person reports "voices in their head" from hundreds of yards away, to pulse-modulating microwaves to carry a "voice" directly to the auditory cortex, hearing without ears is not only possible, but patented. Dr. Begich explains, "This area is one of the most important because it points to the ultimate weapons of political control-the ability to place information directly into the human brain, bypassing all normal filtering mechanisms. Electronic telepathy."
In 1961, Dr. Allen Frey wrote, "Our data to date indicates that the human auditory system can respond to electromagnetic energy in at least a portion of the radio frequency spectrum. Further, this response is instantaneous and occurs at low power densities....for example....with power densities 1/60 of the standard maximum safe level for continuous exposure."
By 1962 Dr. Frey reported that, "Using extremely low average power densities of electromagnetic energy, the perception of sounds was induced in normal and deaf humans."
Dr. Begich's chapter "Auditory Effects" reveals this is a well developed area with numerous patents, which have long since expired. Where are we today?
There are useful sides to this area of technology, depending on how it is used. World-class athletes push the envelope of their particular area of endeavor by small percentage points of performance. The exceptional physical abilities of our humanness have, for the most part, already been reached. But it is estimated that most of us will never use more than five per cent of our brain's potential and the exceptionally gifted may use as much as 15 percent. Dr. Begich offers some insight to the practical and moral possibilities:
"If we begin to think about things like a direct download of information into the brain for learning subjects like mathematics and languages these new technologies will be very useful. These kinds of subjects do not require that value judgments or belief systems be applied to the information being retained and learned."
"Using a direct download of information would be a fantastic way to learn certain subjects. Other subjects would not be suggested using these methods because these other study areas are not formula driven. These subjects require value judgments that conform to existing belief systems being applied to reasoning. These new technologies, in some cases, bypass the conscious mind and deliver the information so it is accepted without question by the subconscious and acted upon. This is a very important point when we consider how much value-filled information comes to us in public education systems [including the media]. State controlled curriculums and compulsory education present real problems because these systems design programs that they 'believe' represent the state of knowledge and activity of culture. The question is: 'Who will control the input for our children?' Do we even have the right to use these technologies before we are 'adults' and able to make our own value judgments based on what our conscious minds create? We must each be in total control of our inputs, experiences, and our personal belief systems, free of any interference. This is called liberty."
Part Two of Dr. Begich's book discusses "Increasing Our Human Potentials"-the positive uses of this emerging technology. This was the basis of such research until the warfare world commandeered it with massive funding and the "CLASSIFIED" stamp.
Biofeedback, kinesiology, chemical interactions, Schumann's Resonance, electro-acupuncture, light and sound techniques, electro-cranial stimulation, Hemi-sync (r) and the Earthpulse Soundwave TM , are but some of the promising technologies detailed in the latter part of Dr. Begich's book.
Unlike the military/police state's high-powered dish array delivery systems, the healing/enhancement side is very low power-often from 5 to 200 microamperes. And the ways the brain can be affected can be very subtle. Robert Monroe's Hemi-sync uses beat frequencies to entrain the brain. Using stereo headphones, if you apply, for example, 15,000 cycles per second sound waves in one ear and 15,007 in the other ear they cancel within the brain, leaving a beat frequency of 7 Hertz and create an Alpha brain wave state-the ideal state for learning.
The Minneapolis School District set up a charter school for attention deficit disorder children. Using biofeedback apparatus for 30-40 one-hour sessions, the children were able to learn to put themselves into a productive Alpha learning state, eventually without using the apparatus. Most of the children were on Ritalin, which became no longer necessary. Can you see why bioenergetic solutions are not well funded except for warfare? The Pharma-cartel can lose a lot of business when this technology replaces their chemical approach with reusable hardware.
The antiquity of bioenergetic technology was revealed by the "Iceman," discovered in the German/Italian Alps some years back. The "autopsy" on this 5,000-year-old man discovered that he had tattoos that directly correlated with acupuncture points and meridians. Acupuncture is generally considered to have originated with the ancient Chinese. How did it appear 5,000 years ago in the Alps?
Pointer Plus
From 5,000 years ago to today, Pointer Plus is a no needles electro-acupuncture with two functions. First it locates acupuncture points accurately by measuring the differences in the electrical properties of the skin. Then it can be used to send energy into the body to stimulate the point it has located. Dr. Begich explains: "When a point is found the device makes a beeping sound and a flashing light. The more rapid the flash and even the sound, the more balanced is the detected point. By depressing a trigger mechanism, energy is sent into that point. It is perceived very lightly, almost like the dusting of a feather on the surface of the skin. It is a slight pulsating sensation. If it's more than that, the power is too high and it becomes uncomfortable. Once treated, the flashing light appears to be on, rather than flashing and the sound is steady."
Is Dr. Crusher's technology from Star Trek here today?
Schumann's Resonance, discovered in the 1950s, reveals that the Earth has an oscillation or pulse of 7.83 hertz, an alpha state frequency ideal for human learning and creativity. In our natural and barefoot state we could tune into this frequency just by being here. Now we are often insulated by our footwear and subject to the 60 Hertz waves of the AC electrical power that pulses into the appliances and lighting of our modern world. Is it any wonder that we appear to have so many cognitively comatose but otherwise "functional" humans surrounding us?
Light and sound devices such as the Sirius are not much more than a Walkman with headphones and glasses that you can use to program your brain state for learning or other enhancement. Electro-Cranial devices produce similar results, but require actual contact points and contact gels-slightly messy.
The Hemi-sync uses sound to create the binaural beat which balances the brain hemispheres and induces the desired brain state. There are over 200 versions on CD to affect attention deficit disorders, stress, enhanced learning, meditation, speed learning, hypertension, pain management, out-of-body-experiences and vivid imagery, to name a few.
The Holophon and Earthpulse Soundwave technologies use piezoelectric transducers to create the binaural beat when placed on the head. Rather than using the ears directly, the transducers effect bioenergetic energy transfer directly, or they can be combined with a headset for "full range audio."
Get the book; read it, and stop laughing at all those people with the tin foil hats. Maybe they knew something we just couldn't or wouldn't conceive of at the time. This already lengthy article only begins to detail what Dr. Begich has compiled in Controlling the Human Mind. It is extensively documented with footnotes on nearly every page. Those serious about the subject can launch their inquiries from there.
As Dr. Begich says, "This is the century of the brain, which ultimately is about the mind and consciousness itself. We are opening the gateway to a deeper understanding of the essence of who we are, who we will choose to be and who future generations will become."
To obtain copies of Controlling the Human Mind, call 1-888-690-1277 or order online at: www.earthpulse.com
Re: Current State of Mind Control
Pokemon triggers seizures
http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/news/pokemon.htm
WASHINGTON POST FOREIGN SERVICE
Friday, December 19, 1997 ; Page D01
Japanese Cartoon Triggers Seizures:
JAPAN'S CARTOON VIOLENCE;TV NETWORKS CRITICIZED AFTER CHILDREN'S SEIZURES
TOKYO, Dec. 18 -- Maybe Mom was right when she said not to sit too close to the TV.
Japan was still trying to figure out what hit it today, after 685 people were taken to hospitals with seizures, convulsions or loss of vision after watching a popular television cartoon on Tuesday. Some 200 victims, mainly children, remained hospitalized today.
Outraged mothers accused television networks of ignoring children's health in the competition for ratings in the multi-billion-dollar animation business. Some called for introduction of an electronic screening device, comparable to the American V-chip, to help parents block out intense animation.
"We are gravely concerned about this escalating race, this competition by the television networks to show ever more stimulating images, targeting even children," the country's largest mothers' organization said in a statement.
The victims, who range in age from 3 to 58 and live throughout the country, suffered attacks during a fast-action cartoon serial called "Pokemon," or "Pocket Monsters." The scene that apparently triggered the neurological episodes involved a bright-white explosion followed by brilliant red, white and blue lights that flashed like a strobe for about five seconds.
In the hour following the show, emergency service telephone lines all over the country began lighting up as people called ambulances. Some families reported that children stopped breathing momentarily; others reported seizures similar to those suffered by epileptics. Newspapers reported that even more people were stricken later in the evening when television news rebroadcast the scenes that made people sick, in an editorial decision not likely to be nominated for any public service awards. The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported today that education officials had identified 12,950 children who suffered at least minor symptoms after watching the show.
The popular program was immediately yanked off the air and a major video rental chain removed taped versions. Shares of Nintendo, which invented the characters on which the show is based, took a nearly 5 percent shellacking on the Tokyo stock market.
And Japan, which produces some of the most creative and distinctive animation in the world, including some of the most violent, was left to ask itself: Is there really such a thing as a killer cartoon?
"It is already well known that television has a tremendous impact on human beings, and in the centuries to come it will become bigger and bigger," said Kikuo Asai, a researcher at the Media Education Development Center in Tokyo. "But in many ways that mechanism has not been fully understood. Perhaps the `Pokemon' case will help make it clearer."
A grave Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto offered this Buck Rogers-ish comment: "Rays and lasers have been considered for use as weapons. Their effects have not been fully determined."
The incident has struck almost everyone here as the most bizarre thing that's happened in Tokyo since a bearded guru with a Christ complex ordered his disciples to gas the city's subway system in March 1995, killing 12 people and sending 5,500 others to the hospital.
About the only people who weren't too surprised were neurologists and the makers of video games. As it turns out, there is ample precedent for intense optical stimulation causing epileptic seizures. Illness related to video games has increased in the past 10 years as video games have proliferated and their visual effects have become more intense.
After several teenagers suffered seizures while playing Nintendo games a few years ago, the company now includes a warning label on much of its software, saying that the games could cause a "shigeki," or a strong stimulation, from bright lights, resulting in unconsciousness or convulsions. The warning advises users prone to such episodes to consult a doctor before playing. Sega also places a similar warning on its video games and software.
In Britain in 1994, the Independent Television Commission, which regulates commercial TV, limited the rate of flash to three per second.
The guidelines were instituted after a 1993 incident in which an ad for noodles aired that "had a great number of fast-moving computer graphics" and other quick variations in brightness, said Suzanne Prance, a spokesman for the commission. "A number of people complained about it, and there were three cases of people actually suffering seizures."
But "it's very difficult to eliminate the problem entirely," Prance said. The issue "is flashing images but also quick changes in patterns such as a black-on-white star changing to a white-on-black star. All our broadcasters have to preview programs to ensure they are in compliance with our code." Several Japanese television networks today said they would screen their animated programming to ensure that it does not contain the kinds of visual effects that caused Tuesday's problems.
Animators said the "Pokemon" episode that sickened people contained no special effects or techniques that had not been used hundreds of times before. Animators said the technique known as "paka-paka," or the use of different-colored lights flashing alternately to create tension, is quite common. "We cannot understand why it turned out this way," said Takemoto Mori, the show's producer.
Akinori Hoshika, a neurologist at Tokyo Medical College, said it is well established that optical stimulation can produce dizziness, nausea, fainting, loss of vision, seizures and other symptoms. Hoshika said children are especially susceptible because their brains and central nervous systems are not fully developed.
Hoshika said strong flashes of red and blue, which are at opposite ends of the color spectrum, tend to be particularly hard on the eye and brain and more likely to produce a reaction.
Japanese homes, many of which are very small and have large-screen televisions, may have made the problem worse. Watching TV in a Japanese apartment can be a little like sitting in the first row at a movie theater.
Today's Yomiuri Shimbun reported that one 14-year-old boy who was sitting less than three feet from his big-screen television was unconscious for more than 30 minutes. A fifth-grade girl sitting seven feet from a 35-inch set suffered a seizure and felt, her family said, "as if she were under the spell of a hypnotist."
A pediatrician in Osaka said he treated two children who were eating dinner in front of the television when they collapsed and fell into convulsions. The seizures lasted for about five minutes, but the children were conscious by the time they arrived at the clinic.
Still, having bright lights strobed into your face from 2 1/2 feet away would be enough to make anyone queasy. Having your senses assaulted with a bizarre kaleidoscopic explosion of light in the middle of your sushi and rice has got to be worse.
Brain Machine Interfaces
http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/news/brain-machine-interfaces.htm
Original Link: http://www.arpa.mil/dso/thrust/biosci/brainmi.htm
Program Manager: Dr. Alan Rudolph
The Brain Machine Interfaces Program represents a major DSO thrust area that will comprise a multidisciplinary, multipronged approach with far reaching impact. The program will create new technologies for augmenting human performance through the ability to noninvasively access codes in the brain in real time and integrate them into peripheral device or system operations. Focus will be on the following areas:
1. Extraction of neural and force dynamic codes related to patterns of motor or sensory activity required for executing simple to complex motor or sensory activity (e.g., reaching, grasping, manipulating, running, walking, kicking, digging, hearing, seeing, tactile). Accessing sensory activity directly could result in the ability to monitor or transmit communications by the brain (visual, auditory, or other). This will require the exploitation of new interfaces and algorithms for providing useful nonlinear transformation, pattern extraction techniques, and the ability to test these in appropriate models or systems.
2. Determination of necessary force and sensory feedback (positional, postural, visual, acoustic, or other) from a peripheral device or interface that will provide critical inputs required for closed loop control of a working device (robotic appendage or other peripheral control device or system). Such feedback could be received from peripheral systems or sent directly into appropriate brain regions.
3. New methods, processes, and instrumentation for accessing neural codes noninvasively at appropriate spatiotemporal resolution to provide closed loop control of a peripheral device. This could include both fundamental interactions of neural cells, tissue, and brain with energy profiles that could provide noninvasive access to codes (magnetics, light, or other).
4. New materials and device design and fabrication methods that embody compliance and elastic principles, and that capture force dynamics that integrate with neural control commands. These include the use of dynamic materials and designs into working prototypes.
5. Demonstrations of plasticity from the neural system and from an integrated working device or system that result in real time control under relevant conditions of force perturbation and cluttered sensory environments from which tasks must be performed (e.g., recognizing and picking up a target and manipulating it).
6. Biomimetic implementation of controllers (with robotics or other devices and systems) that integrate neural sensory or motor control integrated with force dynamic and sensory feedback from a working device or system. The first phase of the program may include dynamic control of simple and complex motor or sensory activity directly using neural codes integrated into a machine, device, or system. Simple actions considered include using a robotic arm or leg to sense a target, reach for it and manipulate it, throw or kick an object at a target, or recognize a sensory input and responding to it (visual, acoustic) directly through input/output brain integration. More complex activity may include issues related to force or sensory perturbation in more complex environments.
This machine knows what you're thinking
http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/news/brain-machine-interfaces1.htm
MIND control. That, in a nutshell is what Brain Machine Interfaces, a $US24 million ($42.2m) enterprise, hopes to achieve with the new technology it is developing.
The Boston Globe reported that this technology could directly read thoughts from a living brain. And go one step further!
It would be able to instil thoughts as well.
And who's providing the funds for this research programme?
The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US Department of Defence that once bankrolled the military programme designed to gauge the chances of geopolitical developments, including terrorist attacks.
That project led to the famous Iran-contra scandal.
Sounds scary, but progress has already been made.
The newspaper reported that scientists in New York announced last year that they could control the skittering motions of a rat by implanting electrodes in its brain and steer it around the lab floor as if it were a radio-controlled toy car.
Ninety-Eighty Four come to mind? A Brave New World? A Matrix-like dystopia?
Use some imagination and you could think chips that impose false memories, machines that scan for wayward thoughts and Big Brother watching your every move.
Its developers however point out that the Brain Machine Interfaces programme could offer help to the paralysed rather than encourage a police state. Copyright © 2003 SPH AsiaOne Ltd. All rights reserved.
BAA 01-42, ADDENDUM 1, SPECIAL FOCUS AREA:
BRAIN MACHINE INTERFACES.
The Defense Sciences Office is interested in new proposals in BRAIN MACHINE INTERFACES. This new program represents a major thrust area for DSO that will comprise a multidisciplinary, multipronged approach with far reaching impact.
Brain Machine Interfaces: The brain takes inputs and generates outputs through the electrical activity of neurons. DARPA is interested in creating new technologies for augmenting human performance through the ability to non-invasively access these codes in the brain in real time and integrate them into peripheral device or system operations. We would like to invite white papers that are far reaching in their implications, innovative, and ambitious in their goals and implementation.
We encourage the submission of white papers that address one or more of the following areas:
Extraction of neural and force dynamic codes related to patterns of motor or sensory activity required for executing simple to complex motor or sensory activity (e.g. reaching, grasping, manipulating, running, walking, kicking, digging, hearing, seeing, tactile). Accessing sensory activity directly could result in the ability to monitor or transmit communications by the brain (visual, auditory, other). This will require the exploitation of new interfaces and algorithms for providing useful non-linear transformation, pattern extraction techniques, and the ability to test these in appropriate models or systems.
Determination of necessary force and sensory feedback (positional, postural, visual, acoustic, other) from a peripheral device or interface that will provide critical inputs required for closed loop control of a working device (robotic appendage or other peripheral control device or system). Such feedback could be both from peripheral systems or directly into appropriate brain regions.
New methods, processes, and instrumentation for accessing neural codes non-invasively at appropriate spatiotemporal resolution to provide closed loop control of a peripheral device. This could include both fundamental interactions of neural cells, tissue, and brain with energy profiles that could provide non-invasive access to codes (magnetics, light, other).
New materials and device design and fabrication that embody compliance and elastic principles and capture force dynamics that integrate with neural control commands. These include the use of dynamic materials and designs into working prototypes.
Demonstrations of plasticity from the neural system and from an integrated working device or system that result in real time control under relevant conditions of force perturbation and cluttered sensory environments from which tasks must be performed (e.g. recognizing and picking up a target and manipulating it).
Biomimetic implementation of controllers (with robotics or other devices and systems) that integrate neural sensory or motor control integrated with force dynamic and sensory feedback from a working device or system.
White papers may include any combinations of the above areas and we encourage the formation of interdisciplinary teams integrated toward solutions to these challenging problems. It is essential that the preparation of white papers include the following areas:
A clear statement of the envisioned utility of the proposed research and development. We are looking for revolutionary applications and goals that could be enabled if the proposed work is completed successfully. While distinct goals for the execution of the proposal are required, the vision presented may extend past the performance period.
A concise statement of the research challenges, approach, and potential anticipated solutions to the challenges that will be addressed. This should include explicit timelines for which progress toward the goals can be determined. Intermediate milestones of approximately 18 month periods with demonstrable metrics of performance must be included for the proposed work.
A cost estimation for resources required for the proposed timeline. This should include a clear description of the human resources needed as well as funding. A management plan that describes how the different disciplines represented on the team will be integrated is critical.
The white paper should consider phases of development as the challenges are met.
The first phase of the program could include dynamic control of simple and complex motor or sensory activity directly using neural codes integrated into a machine, device, or system. Simple actions considered might include using a robotic arm or leg to sense a target, reach for it and manipulate it, throw or kick an object at a target, or recognize a sensory input and responding to it (visual, acoustic) directly through input/output brain integration. More complex activity might include issues related to force or sensory perturbation in more complex environments.
While there is no formal date for submission of proposals, white papers sent within 30 days of the publication of this Addendum will be evaluated immediately upon receipt and you will be notified within 7 days if a full proposal will be requested. We expect to initiate new proposals expeditiously upon peer review, with the first wave of proposals being reviewed 60days after publication of this Addendum. White paper submissions may be made by attachment to an e-mail sent to dsobaa01-42@darpa.mil. Word 97 or higher is recommended, but not required. Embedded text and Postscript are also acceptable. The body of the e-mail must include name, mailing address, phone number, and fax of the proposer. (If proposers choose not to use e-mail, U.S. mail may be used. White papers will not be accepted by way of facsimile transmissions.). Please put the phrase BRAIN MACHINE INTERFACE in the title of the white paper.
Defense research agency seeks to create supersoldiers
By Bruce Falconer, National Journal
Critics maligned the idea as "unbelievably stupid," "bizarre and morbid," and even "an incentive" for someone to actually "commit acts of terrorism." Once members of Congress and the media in July got wind of FutureMAP - a plan by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to create online futures markets where traders could speculate in the likelihood of terrorist attacks - it was only a matter of hours before the project was sacrificed on the altar of political damage control.
But even this, it seems, was too little, too late to appease an outraged Congress: House and Senate appropriations conferees working on the Defense budget have since voted to abolish large portions of the agency's Terrorism Information Awareness program. The program - of which FutureMAP was a small part - was designed to mine private databases for information on terrorist suspects.
DARPA, meanwhile, soldiers on with the kind of "blue-sky" thinking that is its charge. Indeed, the Pentagon agency that underwrote the development of some of the world's most advanced technologies, such as the Internet, the Global Positioning System, and stealth aircraft, is now looking at technologies that will help U.S. troops soldier on, and on, and on.
DARPA thinkers are saying that maybe humans themselves need an upgrade. "The human is becoming the weakest link," DARPA warned last year in an unclassified report. "Sustaining and augmenting human performance will have significant impact on Defense missions and systems." A review of the agency's latest budget request reveals a host of projects aimed squarely at making soldiers smarter, tougher, faster, and stronger - in short, superhuman.
DARPA-funded researchers, for example, have recently begun to crack the brain's neural codes. This research provides glimpses into a future when people will be able to manipulate complicated machinery, or remote-controlled weapons, just by thinking. No touching required.
In an early success for the two-year, $19 million, Brain Machine Interfaces program, a research team led by Duke University neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis outfitted the brain of a small, South American owl monkey with 100 hair-like sensors. The sensors allowed the researchers to analyze the monkey's neural impulses as the animal manipulated a joystick to match a cursor with a series of lights displayed on a nearby computer screen. The impulses were then converted into code that computers could understand. The monkey repeated the motion - only this time, two robotic arms (one in an adjacent room and another 600 miles away in a Boston laboratory) also moved in response to the wireless signals sent straight from the monkey's brain.
In a similar, more recent experiment, the same scientists taught a macaque to direct a cursor to illuminated targets on a computer monitor. When scientists disabled the joystick, the monkey gradually stopped moving its arm altogether and learned to do the experiment just by thinking. "Our immediate goal is to help a person who has been paralyzed...to operate a wheelchair or a robotic limb," wrote Nicolelis and fellow researcher John K. Chapin in the October 2002 issue of Scientific American. "Someday, the research could also help such a patient regain control over a natural arm or leg, with the aid of wireless communication between implants in the brain and the limb."
The military implications are also numerous and revolutionary. Imagine, for example, pilots who could fly high-performance fighter aircraft from the ground using only their thoughts, or soldiers who could communicate with one another telepathically, downloading the latest tactical intelligence directly into their brains. Researchers in other parts of the program are even testing the viability of storing human memories on implantable microchips, a Matrix-like advance that would eliminate the need for training by allowing soldiers to upload someone else's technical know-how or combat experience. Without question, such radical advances are still decades away (at the very least). But DARPA's research is already challenging contemporary notions of what is possible.
Even as some programs concentrate on strengthening the mind, others are focusing on the body. One such DARPA effort - Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation - could transform today's infantry "grunts" into high-tech supersoldiers similar to those imagined by Robert Heinlein's 1959 science-fiction classic Starship Troopers. The $40 million program - already midway through its six-year run - is experimenting with power suits meant to increase by orders of magnitude the toughness and lethality of the average foot soldier. DARPA's plans call for the exoskeleton to be built around a "haptic interface," a series of sensors distributed throughout the suit to read and amplify even the smallest of human muscle movements. According to the agency's Web site, soldiers encased in this futuristic battle armor will be able to "handle more firepower, wear more ballistic protection, carry larger-caliber weapons and more ammunition, and carry supplies greater distances." They might also be able to jump to extreme heights and even fly short distances. Peter Parker's "spidey sense" is tingling just thinking about it.
The exoskeleton research has met with at least a few notable, if modest, successes. At the University of California (Berkeley) Human Engineering Laboratory, a team of researchers has built what might ultimately become the legs of tomorrow's robo-warrior. According to the lab's Web site, the "Lower Extremity Enhancer" gives its owner the "ability to carry weights on the order of 120 pounds over any sort of terrain for extended periods of time without undue effort."
But even bionic legs may be overshadowed by other exoskeletal advances. Another DARPA contractor - a small, California-based outfit called Trek Aerospace - used its $5.1 million federal research grant to develop and test an awkward-looking flying machine that could one day render the term "ground troops" obsolete. The company envisions a one-man rotor-driven craft that could cruise at 60 mph at an altitude of up to 6,300 feet, or could hover over a battlefield for up to an hour and a half.
Revolutions in brain-machine communication and physical performance would radically change the nature of warfare, but even these technologies would be confined by the natural boundaries of human endurance. After all, war fighting is a tiring business, and armies have always been slowed by the need for sleep. Since World War II, American pilots have relied on stimulants to sustain them through long combat missions. Fighter pilots in the 1991 Gulf War and the more recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were routinely issued "go-pills" (usually about 5 to 10 milligrams of Dexedrine) to be used at their own discretion. But amphetamines, while effective in the short term, have nasty side effects that can seriously impair a pilot's judgment. Just last year, for example, two pill-taking American F-16 pilots nearing the end of a 10-hour mission over Afghanistan dropped laser-guided bombs on a group of Canadian troops that they mistook for a hostile Taliban unit. Four Canadians died and eight were wounded in the incident.
Avoiding these sorts of accidents while simultaneously prolonging the combat effectiveness of American troops are the animating forces behind DARPA's ongoing effort to break the sleep barrier. The $20 million Continuous Assisted Performance program "is investigating ways to prevent fatigue and enable soldiers to stay awake, alert, and effective for up to seven consecutive days without suffering any deleterious mental or physical effects and without using any of the current generation of stimulants," said DARPA Director Tony Tether last spring in a written statement to the House Government Reform Committee.
In early investigations, some scientists have shown particular interest in learning how other animal species (such as dolphins, whales, and birds) routinely forgo sleep. Meanwhile, researchers in other parts of the program, such as Yaakov Stern, a neuropsychologist at Columbia University, are exploring ways to stimulate the brain to forestall feelings of fatigue. Stern and his colleagues envision a time when sleep-deprived pilots might be able to "zap" their brains with electronic currents at the push of a button, instantly stimulating key neurons and regaining full alertness by fooling the brain into feeling rested.
Wading through DARPA's budget request feels like entering an alternate universe, a fantasy world of sorts, where anything and everything is possible. It is, therefore, easy to forget that an estimated 85 percent of DARPA projects end in failure. But that is not necessarily a problem, according to DARPA spokesperson Jan Walker. "Our mission is to look outside of the box, to be revolutionary," she told National Journal. "You can't be revolutionary by being conservative. They're contradictory."
Dr. Paul Saffo, research director at the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif., agrees. "When you do [DARPA's] kind of work, if you're not failing part of the time, you're not in the right place," he said. "By definition, you've got to be on the ragged edge of chaos, and a significant percentage of your projects have to fail in interesting ways."
That said, others have wondered whether DARPA doesn't sometimes wander too far off into the realm of "what-if" - such as it did with FutureMAP. The agency's bioresearch programs, for example, could pack a far larger ethical punch than FutureMAP because they raise fundamental questions about what it means to be human. A reader of DARPA's latest budget request easily becomes desensitized to terms such as "human augmentation" and "assisted performance," which, through sheer force of repetition, begin to lose their philosophical complexity. Dr. Steven G. Wax, acting director of DARPA's Defense Sciences Office, said that the agency prefers to view such programs in terms of "maintaining the type of capability that the soldier arrives with." In other words, research about exoskeletons and sleep deprivation seeks mainly to prevent the degradation of soldiers' natural capabilities in the field.
But serious moral and ethical concerns about these projects remain. DARPA itself recently invited a bio-ethicist to speak to program managers about issues associated with human augmentation, and Wax says that the agency carefully weighs these concerns when choosing which projects to fund. Steven Aftergood at the Federation of American Scientists suggests that Congress also has a vital role to play. The Armed Services committees that authorize the agency and the defense appropriations committees that fund it, he said, "need to do some internal self-assessment as to whether they are getting enough information from DARPA and whether they have the internal staff resources to devote to carefully scrutinizing DARPA programs."
Still, futurists warn against the temptation to become overly cautious. "Human augmentation is coming; the only question is how soon," said Saffo. "This stuff is being worked on in all sorts of places all over the world. I'll give you three options. We can stay in it and be state of the art and deal with the moral issues. We can get out of it completely and be bystanders. Or we can do this half-assed thing in the middle. Now, of those three options, which one do you think is rational?"
Duke University Medical Center
Human Studies Show Feasibility Of Brain-machine Interfaces
DURHAM, N.C. -- In their first human studies of the feasibility of using brain signals to operate external devices, researchers at Duke University Medical Center report that arrays of electrodes can provide useable signals for controlling such devices. The research team is now working to develop prototype devices that may enable paralyzed people to operate "neuroprosthetic" and other external devices using only their brain signals.
Dennis Turner, M.D. and Parag Patil, M.D. (Photo Credit: Duke University Medical Center)
Rats Operate Robotic Arm Via Brain Activity
Monkeys Consciously Control A Robot Arm Using Only Brain Signals; Appear To 'Assimilate' Arm As If It Were Their Own
Monkeys Control A Robot Arm Via Brain Signals
While the new studies provide an initial proof of principle that human application of brain-machine interfaces is possible, the researchers emphasize that many years of development and clinical testing will be required before such neuroprosthetic devices are available.
The research team, led by neurosurgeon and professor of neurobiology Dennis Turner, M.D., and neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis, M.D., will publish their results in the July 2004 issue of the journal Neurosurgery. Principal members of the research team also include Parag Patil, M.D., a resident in neurosurgery and lead author of the study, and Jose Carmena, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow in neurobiology. The research was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Institutes of Health.
The research builds on earlier studies in the Nicolelis laboratory, in which monkeys learned to control a robot arm using only their brain signals.
In the initial human studies, Patil and colleagues recorded electrical signals from arrays of 32 microelectrodes, during surgeries performed to relieve the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and tremor disorders. These surgical procedures routinely involve implanting electrodes into the brain and then stimulating the brain with small electrical currents to relieve the patient's symptoms. The patients are awake during surgery, and the neurosurgeons typically record brain signals to ensure that permanent electrodes are placed into the optimal location in the brain.
In the experiments being reported in Neurosurgery, the researchers added a simple manual task to the surgical procedure. While brain signals were recorded using the novel 32-channel electrode array, the 11 volunteer patients were asked to play a hand-controlled video game.
Subsequently analyzing the signals from these experiments, the team found that the signals contained enough information to be useful in predicting the hand motions. Such prediction is the necessary requisite for reliably using neural signals to control external devices.
"Despite the limitations on the experiments, we were surprised to find that our analytical model can predict the patients' motions quite well," said Nicolelis. "We only had five minutes of data on each patient, during which it took a minute or two to train them to the task. This suggests that as clinical testing progresses, and we use electrode arrays that are implanted for a long period of time, we could achieve a workable control system for external devices," he said.
While other researchers have demonstrated that individually implanted electrodes can be used to control a cursor on a computer screen, complex external devices would require data from large arrays of electrodes, said the Duke researchers.
According to Nicolelis, another major difference between the initial human studies and the monkey studies is that recording in the human patients were made from electrodes inserted deeper into the brain, in subcortical structures, rather than the cortical surface.
"This shows that one can extract information not only from cortical areas, but from subcortical ones, too," said Nicolelis. "This suggests that in the future, there will be more options for sampling neuronal information to control a prosthetic device," he said.
According to Turner, the progression to human clinical studies presents a number of challenges. For example, he said, the data with monkeys were obtained from electrodes attached to the surface of the cerebral cortex.
"We initially used subcortical electrodes, because they are more stable because they are buried deeper," said Turner. Also, he said, the deeper regions present other advantages. "The way the brain works, all the signals for motor control are filtered through these deep regions of the brain before they reach the final cortical output," he said. "So, they are theoretically easier to record from than cortical areas. The subcortical areas are also denser, which means there are more cells to record from in a smaller area.
Working with Duke biomedical engineers, the research team is currently developing the initial prototype of a neuroprosthetic device that will include a wireless interface between the patient and the device.
According to Turner, while the most obvious application of such technology would be a robot arm for a quadriplegic, he and his colleagues are planning other devices as well. One would be a neurally controlled electric wheelchair, and another a neurally operated keyboard, whose output could include either text or speech. Such devices could help both paralyzed people and those who have lost speech capabilities because of stroke or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease).
A key question in future clinical studies will be whether humans can incorporate such devices into their "schema," or neural representation of the external world, said Turner. The monkeys in Nicolelis' studies appeared to do just that.
"We do know that for all kinds of motor training, such as riding a bicycle, people incorporate an external device into their schema, and the process becomes subconscious," he said. "We will build on that phenomenon in our human studies. It's known, for example, that patients who don't have use of their arm still show in MRI studies that the control centers in the brain are working normally. When they are asked to imagine moving their arm, the control centers become active. So, we have good hope that the neurons in those centers can still provide the same signals, even though the arm isn't physically working."
As their next major step, said Turner, the researchers have already applied for federal approval to begin implanting experimental electrode arrays long-term in quadriplegic patients. Such tests, conducted over the next three to five years would involve implanting the arrays in specific regions, asking the patients to perform specific tasks and then exploring which tasks are optimally controlled by that region.
Editor's Note: The original news release can be found here.
This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Duke University Medical Center.
UCSD Neuroscientists Find That Attention To Sound Influences Ability To See
In studies of how people process sound and sight together to make sense of the complex world around them, neuroscientists at the UCSD School of Medicine have found that attention drawn to a sound also enhances an individual's ability to see.
Published in the Oct. 19, 2000 issue of Nature, the study provides important insights into normal brain activities, and may lead to better understanding of the role attention plays in dysfunctional neurological conditions such as attention deficit disorder and schizophrenia. Another potential application is in the workplace for design of warning systems and man-machine interfaces where attention is crucial.
The study's lead author is John J. McDonald, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Steven Hillyard, Ph.D., UCSD professor of neurosciences and study co-author along with UCSD assistant project scientist Wolfgang A. Teder-Sälejärvi, Ph.D.
"These studies show a stronger linkage between sight and hearing than previously demonstrated," Hillyard said. "Our results suggest that you will see an object or event more clearly if it makes a sound before you see it."
McDonald noted that the majority of past studies looked at only one sense, such as vision or sound or touch. In order to study the role of attention in more realistic situations and the specific connection between sound and sight, the UCSD researchers conducted two experiments with 33 volunteers. The subjects were told to indicate whether a dim, obscured light appeared soon after a sound was presented. The sound and light appeared either on the same side or on opposite sides of the subject's direction of gaze. Using a mathematical model called signal detection theory to weed out guesses by the volunteers, researchers found that the light was detected more accurately when it appeared on the same side as the sound.
"We found that what people hear significantly influences what they see," McDonald said. "Researchers have known for many years that the brain integrates information received from multiple stimuli in the environment, and ignores nonessential information. What we haven't understood are the processes that enable us to selectively pay attention to events occurring in different modalities. In this study, we found that paying attention to a sudden sound enhances our ability to see visual stimuli that appear at the same location."
"As we continue to learn how individuals perceive the multiple stimuli taking place around them, we'll have data from normal brain function to compare with and help us understand abnormal conditions, such as attention deficit disorder, " McDonald said.
Teder-Sälejärvi added that the findings also hold promise for the "ergonomic design of warning systems in assembly lines and for other high-risk work environments such as radar operation. Studies like ours also may help in the design of man-machine interfaces where focussing of attention on a primary task is mandatory."
While the results reported in Nature covered the behavioral performance of subjects, the researchers also recorded the brain's responses to sound and light stimuli to see whether paying attention to sound influences neural activity in visual areas of the brain.
"We're now compiling this data to give us a precise measurement of the moment to moment changes in the visual cortex that arise from paying attention to sound," McDonald said.
Next steps in the research include more studies of normal brain function involving different senses and comparisons to individuals with abnormal brain function.
This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University Of California, San Diego.
Source:Duke University
DARPA To Support Development Of Human Brain-Machine Interfaces
DURHAM, N.C. -- Devices including "neuroprosthetic" limbs for paralyzed people and "neurorobots" controlled by brain signals from human operators could be the ultimate applications of brain-machine interface technologies developed under a $26 million contract to Duke University sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The contract is part of DARPA's Brain-Machine Interfaces Program (http://www.darpa.mil/dso/thrust/sp/bmi.htm), which seeks to develop new technologies for augmenting human performance by accessing the brain in real time and integrating the information into external devices.
Principal investigator for the DARPA project will be Professor of Neurobiology Miguel Nicolelis (www.nicolelislab.net). Co-PIs are Craig Henriquez, who is the W.H. Gardner Jr. Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Professor of Neurosurgery Dennis Turner and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Patrick Wolf. Other center collaborators include John Chapin of the State University of New York, Brooklyn, Jose Principe of the University of Florida, Mandayam Srinivasan of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvey Wiggins of Plexon Inc. in Dallas.
The DARPA support will help launch Duke's Center for Neuroengineering, co-directed by Nicolelis and Henriquez, whose scientists and engineers will seek to pioneer a new technological era in which brain signals could control machines that augment and extend human capabilities in a way never before possible.
Besides development of brain-controlled prosthetic limbs, neurosurgeons could apply brain-mapping enabled by the new technologies to aid surgeons in distinguishing healthy brain tissue from that which is part of a tumor or a focus for epileptic seizures.
"This technology can immediately increase the resolution with which surgeons can map the extent of a tumor or a specific brain region," said Nicolelis. "Such improved mapping can translate into a better prognosis for the patient, since less tissue might have to be removed."
Beyond medical uses, brain-machine interfaces also could be applied to enhance the abilities of normal humans, said the researchers. As examples, they said, neurally controlled robots could enable remote search-and-rescue operations or exploration of hazardous or inaccessible environments.
The Duke center will consist initially of a collaboration of separate laboratories in the medical center's department of neurobiology and in the Pratt School of Engineering department of biomedical engineering. However, the researchers expect to unite the center's efforts in a new multidisciplinary engineering building now under construction.
As part of the DARPA support:
* Biomedical engineer Henriquez and his colleagues will coordinate development of equipment and methods for visualizing and analyzing the massive amounts of data produced from electrode arrays in the brains of experimental animals.
* Neurosurgeon Turner and his colleagues will investigate potential use of brain-machine interfaces in patients with neurological disorders.
* Biomedical engineer Patrick Wolf and his colleagues will develop a miniaturized "neurochip" for detecting and analyzing brain signals, as well as optical communications links between the chip and the control components of the interface.
* John Chapin's laboratory will develop the sensory feedback mechanism by which animals and humans can "feel" the actions of a neurorobotic arm or hand.
* Jose Principe and his colleagues will develop new computer algorithms for translating brain-derived signals into control commands to operate a robot arm.
* Mandayam Srinivasan's laboratory will develop new interfaces to provide visual and tactile feedback signals to animal subjects operating robot arms, and
* Harvey Wiggins of Plexon Inc. in Dallas will supply hardware and software that will enable development and testing of brain-machine interfaces.
According to Nicolelis, the initial concentration of the new center will be on neuroprosthetic arms for paralyzed people, based on the success of initial experiments with animals. "Last year, we reported experiments in primates showing that a brain-machine interface could, indeed, control a robot arm," said Nicolelis. "While this was a first-generation system, it proved to us that there was an enormous opportunity to pursue research leading to clinical applications. We are extremely grateful to DARPA for their vision in establishing a program that will provide the crucial support to launch this effort."
In 2000, Nicolelis and his colleagues tested a neural system on monkeys that enabled the animals to use their brain signals, as detected by implanted electrodes, to control a robot arm to reach for a piece of food. The scientists even transmitted the brain signals over the Internet, remotely controlling a robot arm 600 miles away. The technique they used, called "multi-neuron population recordings" was originally developed by center collaborator Chapin.
In the experiments, the scientists used arrays of up to 96 electrodes to sense signals from multiple areas of the brain, including the motor cortex from which movement is controlled. The scientists then recorded the output of these electrodes as the animals learned "reaching tasks," including reaching for small pieces of food.
The scientists fed the mass of neural signal data generated during many repetitions of these tasks into a computer, which analyzed the brain signals to detect tell-tale patterns that would enable researchers to predict the trajectory of the monkey's hand from the signals.
Then, by programming the computer connected to the robotic arm to sense these signal patterns emanating from the monkey's brain, the scientists could enable the monkey to, in effect, control the arm only via neural signals.
This proof-of-concept experiment showed the effectiveness of recording from multiple areas of the brain and then allowing the computer to "learn" brain signal patterns that triggered certain movements.
In the new center, Nicolelis, Henriquez and their colleagues will aim to increase the number of recording electrodes to more than 1,000 to enable control of more complex actions by robotic arms and other devices. The "neurochip" being developed by Wolf and his colleagues will greatly reduce the size of the circuitry required for sampling and analysis of brain signals.
"Our dream is to develop a palmtop-like device that routes the signals either to robotic devices, computers, or even to the physician, to alert the physician to some problem," said Nicolelis. According to Henriquez, the greater number of recording electrodes will also enable far more sophisticated analysis of brain signals.
"This research involves a major effort to decode how the brain manages information," said Henriquez. "Once we are able to use computation to decode such information, we can translate that understanding into an algorithm that can be incorporated into hardware." Ultimately, the researchers hope to be able to record and analyze such signals for long periods of time without damage to brain tissue, said the researchers. They have already shown that animals can tolerate the electrodes for periods of years without apparent harm.
According to Nicolelis, the technology and computational methods developed under the DARPA support also will lead to a deeper understanding of the brain itself.
"This research will provide us with a powerful new set of experimental tools and techniques to answer the question of how millions of brain cells come together to generate a particular behavior," he said. "Traditionally, the neurosciences have taken a reductionist approach, with investigators trying to understand individual neurons, molecules and genes. We are trying to understand the brain's function as a dynamic system."
Nicolelis, Henriquez and their colleagues are among researchers developing a theory that neurons are not hard-wired circuit elements permanently assigned to one computing task, like the microprocessor inside a computer. Rather, the new theory holds that neurons are adaptable, living entities that can participate in many processing tasks at once. Moreover, the theory holds that those tasks may change from millisecond to millisecond. For example, Nicolelis' experiments have revealed that the brain signals producing a single event, such as a monkey reaching out, are mirrored in many places in the same brain region -- as if the neurons "vote" on such actions.
In their current experiments, the center's scientists and engineers are developing "closed-loop" systems, in which movement of the robot arm generates tactile feedback signals in the form of pressure on the animals' skin. Also, they are providing visual feedback by allowing the animal to watch the movement of the arm.
Such feedback studies could also potentially improve the ability of paralyzed people to use such a brain-machine interface to control prosthetic appendages, said Nicolelis. In fact, he said, the brain could prove extraordinarily adept at using feedback to adapt to such an artificial appendage.
"One provocative, and controversial, question is whether the brain can actually incorporate a machine as part of the neural representation of the body," he said. "I truly believe that it is possible. The brain is continuously learning and adapting, and previous studies have shown that the body representation in the brain is dynamic. So, if you created a closed feedback loop in which the brain controls a device and the device provides feedback to the brain, I would predict that as people or animals learn to use the device, their brains will basically dedicate neuronal space to represent that device."
Development of the Duke center's brain-interface technologies also will involve collaborations with industry, said the researchers. The market for such devices should be considerable, they said. According to a market analysis commissioned by DARPA, the current worldwide market of about $270 million annually is projected to be $1.5 billion by 2005.
"In our discussion with corporations, we've found that, even though these technologies are in their infancy, the companies are emphasizing their commercial development," said Henriquez. "We believe that the Duke center will help propel development of the next generation of brain interface technologies. And the opportunities for their application seem almost boundless."
DARPA (www.darpa.mil) is the central research and development organization for the Department of Defense. It manages and directs selected basic and applied research and development projects for DoD, and pursues research and technology where risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions.
The DARPA sponsored contract is being managed by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego (http://enterprise.spawar.navy.mil).
Center for Neuroengineering -- http://bmewww.mc.duke.edu/Research/Elecphys/Neuroeng/Neuro.htm
Miguel Nicolelis bio -- http://www.neuro.duke.edu/Faculty/Nicolelis.htm
Craig Henriquez bio -- http://bme-www.egr.duke.edu/fandr_indivprofiles.php?id=5
This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Duke University.
Jackson Holly
It's the TV, stupid!
Mind-Reading Tech May Not Be Far Off
At the World Science Festival this week, indications that brain scanners may soon uncover your private thoughts
By Brooke Borel Posted 06.12.2009
Neuroscientists are already able to read some basic thoughts, like whether an individual test subject is looking at a picture of a cat or an image with a specific left or right orientation. They can even read pictures that you're simply imagining in your mind's eye. Even leaders in the field are shocked by how far we've come in our ability to peer into people's minds. Will brain scans of the future be able to tell if a person is lying or telling the truth? Suggest whether a consumer wants to buy a car? Reveal our secret likes and dislikes, or our hidden prejudices? While we aren't there yet, these possibilities have dramatic social, legal and ethical implications.
Last night at the World Science Festival in New York, leading neuroscientists took the stage to discuss current research into functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), a type of scan that indirectly measures neural activity by measuring the change in the blood oxygen level in the brain. Neurons require oxygen in order to fire, so if a person is thinking about or looking at a specific image, by looking at the oxygen levels the scientists can see the patterns that "light up" in the brain, and link them to a specific word or image. Study results in this field are astonishing. Work out of Frank Tong's lab at Vanderbilt University, one of the event's panelists, shows that the researchers can read the orientation of an object that a person is looking out -- say a striped pattern that goes off to the left or the right -- 95 percent of the time. His group also, with 83 percent accuracy, can predict which of two patterns an individual is holding in their memory.
But deciphering the patterns that result from one word or image is fairly simple. Unraveling the entirety of our thoughts is not. John-Dylan Haynes, a neuroscientist at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin and another panelist, says that the researchers are not truly reading minds: "We don't understand the language of the brain, the syntax and the semantics of neural language." At this point, he says, they are just using statistical analysis to analyze brain patterns during very specific object-oriented tasks.
Some of Haynes' own work, however, seems eerily akin to mind reading. In an experiment reminiscent of Benjamin Libet's 1985 Delay Test -- in which electroencephalogram (EEG) scans indicated neural activity before a test subject was conscious of making a decision to move their hand, encouraging many a debate about free will -- Haynes' team was able to predict whether or not a test subject would press a button with their left or right hand before the subject was aware which they would pick, simply by reading their brain scans.
The prospect of mind reading brings up privacy issues, raises deep ethical questions, and will doubtless eventually bring complicated legal dilemmas. Emory University bioethicist Paul Root Wolpe, a leading voice in the relatively new field of neuroethics, urges society to be "vigilant" as these technologies advance, and think about how to set the boundaries on who should be scanned and when. One potential grey area is the Fifth Amendment: Will brain scanning count as testimonial self-incrimination in a court case, or will it fall into the same category as submitting hair and blood samples? Other questions to consider: Can fMRIs act as trustworthy lie detectors or indicators of racial prejudice in a hate crime, and should the tests be admissible in court? Wolpe predicts that the Supreme Court will have to decide on questions like these within the next decade.
For now, however, all of the panelists agree: do not trust current fMRI products that are marketed as lie detectors. They say these may be over-glorified polygraph tests, and may simply measure emotional responses to stress, rather than "truth." More research needs to be done to confirm the validity of such machines. But it may happen sooner than you think.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-06/mind-reading-tech-way
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Also ... brain hacking:
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/national/dpgo_Hackers_Next_Target_Your_Brain_mb_07112009_2660033
Hackers' Next Target -
Your Brain?
Published : Saturday, 11 Jul 2009
* By MIKE BRODY
(MYFOX NATIONAL) - In the past year, researchers have developed technology that makes it possible to use thoughts to operate a computer and maneuver a wheelchair . Another new device reportedly can convert brain waves into data and transmit the data via wireless technology into the minds of other wearers of the device.
These technological advances seem like exciting breakthroughs for researchers, but some scientists are concerned that "brain hacking" or "mind hijacking" is a real possibility that needs to be taken seriously.
"Neural devices are innovating at an extremely rapid rate and hold tremendous promise for the future," computer security expert Tadayoshi Kohno of the University of Washington told Wired.com . "But if we don't start paying attention to security, we're worried that we might find ourselves in five or 10 years saying we've made a big mistake."
At last month's World Science Festival in New York , leading neuroscientists described how far we've come in our ability to peer into people's minds. Some experts think the hackers can't be far behind.
St. Augustine: -The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it.
Let it loose; it will defend itself.-
Inzane
Excellent post! I am a Marketing/PR Grad. So the stuff we studied would make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Cults, religions, fanatics. All deployed through main stream media.