Feeding knowledge directly into your brain, just like in sci-fi classic The Matrix, could soon take as much effort as falling asleep, scientists believe. Researchers claim to have developed a stimulator which can feed information directly into a person’s brain and teach them new skills in a shorter amount of time.
In the sci-fi classic, protagonist Neo is able to learn kung fu in seconds after the martial art is ‘uploaded’ straight to his brain. Researchers from HRL Laboratories, based in California, say they have found a way to amplify learning, only on a much smaller scale than seen in the Hollywood film.
They studied the electric signals in the brain of a trained pilot and then fed the data into novice subjects as they learned to pilot an aeroplane in a realistic flight simulator. The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, found that subjects who received brain stimulation via electrode-embedded head caps improved their piloting abilities and learnt the task 33 per cent better than a placebo group.
“Our system is one of the first of its kind. It’s a brain stimulation system,” explained Dr Matthew Phillips.
“There’s large scientific basis for the development of our system. The specific task we were looking at was piloting an aircraft, which requires a synergy of both cognitive and motor performance. When you learn something, your brain physically changes. Connections are made and strengthened in a process called neuroplasticity. It turns out that certain functions of the brain, like speech and memory, are located in very specific regions of the brain, about the size of your pinky.”
Dr Matthews believes brain stimulation could eventually be implemented for many learning tasks. The electrical current itself is too weak to activate neurons; instead it changes the ability of neurons to respond to stimuli, such as learning a new task. The procedure can therefore modulate the signal-to-noise ratio in a select brain region and tweak information processing. The word ‘tweak’ here is key. The stimulation doesn’t transfer meaningful information – it only improves the ability of subjects to learn.
There is a flipside to all this – zapping the brain can impede cognition. For some tasks, the procedure impaired the volunteers from automatically using this new knowledge in subsequent tests. The authors called their finding “the mental cost of cognitive enhancement”. We won’t be learning kung fu in a few seconds yet, but we could be learning really, really fast.
Did you know…
• An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
• Birds need gravity to swallow.
• You burn more calories eating celery than it contains (the more you eat the thinner you become).
• Your tongue is the fastest healing part of your body.
For more trivia: www.um.edu.mt/think
Sound bites
• A novel written by artificial intelligence was a finalist in Japan’s Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award. The award is named after Hoshi Shinichi, a Japanese science fiction author whose books include The Whimsical Robot and Greetings from Outer Space. The unique contest accepts submissions from humans and machines, and judges for the prize, now in its third year, weren’t told which novels were written by humans and which were penned by human-AI teams. This year was the first time the committee received submissions written by AI programmes.
www.inquisitr.com/2929829/artificial-intelligence-writes-novel-nearly-wins-japans-unique-literary-prize/
• A hydrogen car has just set the record for the world’s longest continuous journey. A Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell car has just completed a record-breaking 9,810km (6,096-mile) unbroken trip around the M25 (the motorway that encircles London) over the course of six days, stopping only to top up on fuel. Not only did the car achieve the longest continuous journey ever, it also travelled 643km (400 miles) on one tank of hydrogen – further than any other fuel cell electric vehicle ever made.
www.sciencealert.com/hydrogen-powered-car-goes-on-a-record-breaking-drive-around-london