Brainternet: Groundbreaking Real-Time Brain-Internet Interface

In a triumph for cognitive neuroscience, a team of neuroscientists and engineers have achieved a pioneering milestone by successfully connecting a human brain to the internet in real-time. The brainchild of this groundbreaking feat is a device known as the ‘Brainternet’, a brain-computer interface that works by translating the brain’s electrical activity into a data stream, which is then transmitted over the internet. This innovation allows for continuous streaming of brain activity that can be monitored on an open website.

Potential Implications of the Brainternet

The implications of this breakthrough are immense and multifaceted. From the realm of medical diagnostics to the advancement of brain-computer interface technology, the Brainternet opens up uncharted territories for exploration. The project, spearheaded by Adam Pantanowitz, a luminary at the Wits School of Electrical and Information Engineering, aims to facilitate a profound understanding of the human brain by providing accessibility to real-time brain activity to researchers and the public alike.

While the Brainternet project is still in its nascent stage, it holds the potential to revolutionize the way we communicate, learn, and interact with our environment. As the technology matures, it could lead to new forms of communication and potentially help people with neurodegenerative diseases or those who are severely physically disabled to communicate better.

AI Models and Human Brain Connectivity

Parallel to the Brainternet project, researchers from the Center for Cognition and Sociality and the Data Science Group within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) discovered a similarity between the memory processing of artificial intelligence (AI) models and the hippocampus of the human brain. The Transformer AI model was found to use a gatekeeping process akin to the brain’s NMDA receptor, enhancing memory in the AI model when tweaked to reflect the gating action of the NMDA receptor. This revelation suggests that AI models’ learning processes can be explained using established neuroscience knowledge.

DeepSouth Supercomputer and Human Brain Simulation

Meanwhile, scientists at Western Sydney University have unveiled a new supercomputer, DeepSouth, capable of simulating a full-scale human brain. The supercomputer, with its impressive capability of performing 228 trillion synaptic operations per second, is comparable to the level of activity across all the interconnected neurons within the brain. This energy-efficient supercomputer will allow researchers to explore computing in a less power-hungry way, potentially benefiting fields including sensing, biomedical, robotics, space, and large-scale AI applications.