On June 12, 2014, precisely at 3:33 in a balmy winter afternoon in São Paulo, Brazil, a typical South American winter afternoon, this kid, this young man that you see celebrating here like he had scored a goal, Juliano Pinto, 29 years old, accomplished a magnificent deed. Despite being paralyzed and not having any sensation from mid-chest to the tip of his toes as the result of a car crash six years ago that killed his brother and produced a complete spinal cord lesion that left Juliano in a wheelchair, Juliano rose to the occasion, and on this day did something that pretty much everybody that saw him in the six years deemed impossible. Juliano Pinto delivered the opening kick of the 2014 Brazilian World Soccer Cup here just by thinking. He could not move his body, but he could imagine the movements needed to kick a ball. He was an athlete before the lesion. He's a para-athlete right now. He's going to be in the Paralympic Games, I hope, in a couple years. But what the spinal cord lesion did not rob from Juliano was his ability to dream. And dream he did that afternoon, for a stadium of about 75,000 people and an audience of close to a billion watching on TV.
Vouvos contar o que ocorreu o 12 de xuño de 2014. Aconteceu xustamente ás 15:33. Nunha morna tarde de inverno en São Paulo, Brasil, a típica tarde de inverno suramericana, este rapaz que vedes celebrando coma se anotara un gol, Juliano Pinto, de 29 anos de idade, acadou unha magnífica fazaña. É unha persoa de mobilidade reducida que perdeu a sensibilidade dende a parte media do tórax ata as dedas por un accidente de coche hai seis anos que provocou a morte do seu irmán e causoulle unha lesión medular completa que o deixou nunha cadeira de rodas. A pesar de todo, aproveitou a oportunidade e xusto aquel día, Juliano protagonizou un suceso que case todos os que o viran neses seis anos coidaran imposible. Juliano Pinto foi quen de xutar o balón no lanzamento de apertura da cerimonia de inauguración da Copa do Mundo de Fútbol de Brasil en 2014 só co pensamento. Non podía mover o corpo, pero podía imaxinar os movementos necesarios para xutar o balón. Antes era deportista e agora é paraatleta. Espero que participe nos Xogos Paraolímpicos nun par de anos. Porén, o que a lesión de medula non lle arrebatou a Juliano foi a capacidade de soñar. O seu soño fíxose realidade aquela tarde nun estadio con case 75 000 persoas e cunha audiencia de case mil millóns de espectadores na televisión.
And that kick crowned, basically, 30 years of basic research studying how the brain, how this amazing universe that we have between our ears that is only comparable to universe that we have above our head because it has about 100 billion elements talking to each other through electrical brainstorms, what Juliano accomplished took 30 years to imagine in laboratories and about 15 years to plan.
E ese tiro coroou, principalmente, 30 anos de investigación básica, na que estudamos como o cerebro, este marabilloso universo que temos entre as orellas, que só se pode comparar co universo que temos enriba das nosas cabezas e ten sobre 100 mil millóns de elementos que se comunican mediante impulsos eléctricos. O que Juliano conseguiu, imaxinámolo durante 30 anos nos laboratorios e deseñámolo durante uns 15.
When John Chapin and I, 15 years ago, proposed in a paper that we would build something that we called a brain-machine interface, meaning connecting a brain to devices so that animals and humans could just move these devices, no matter how far they are from their own bodies, just by imagining what they want to do, our colleagues told us that we actually needed professional help, of the psychiatry variety. And despite that, a Scot and a Brazilian persevered, because that's how we were raised in our respective countries, and for 12, 15 years, we made demonstration after demonstration suggesting that this was possible.
Cando John Chapin e mais eu, hai 15 anos, propuxemos nun artigo que construiriamos un aparello chamado interface cerebro-máquina, grazas ao que se conectaría un cerebro a uns dispositivos de xeito que animais e humanos puideran movelos sen importar o lonxe que estiveran dos seus corpos só imaxinando o que querían facer, os nosos colegas dixéronnos que necesitabamos axuda profesional da especialidade psiquiátrica. E a pesar de todo, un escocés e un brasileiro teimaron en facelo, porque así foi como nos aprenderon nos nosos respectivos países e durante 12 ou 15 anos, demostramos ensaio tras ensaio que era posible.
And a brain-machine interface is not rocket science, it's just brain research. It's nothing but using sensors to read the electrical brainstorms that a brain is producing to generate the motor commands that have to be downloaded to the spinal cord, so we projected sensors that can read hundreds and now thousands of these brain cells simultaneously, and extract from these electrical signals the motor planning that the brain is generating to actually make us move into space. And by doing that, we converted these signals into digital commands that any mechanical, electronic, or even a virtual device can understand so that the subject can imagine what he, she or it wants to make move, and the device obeys that brain command. By sensorizing these devices with lots of different types of sensors, as you are going to see in a moment, we actually sent messages back to the brain to confirm that that voluntary motor will was being enacted, no matter where -- next to the subject, next door, or across the planet. And as this message gave feedback back to the brain, the brain realized its goal: to make us move. So this is just one experiment that we published a few years ago, where a monkey, without moving its body, learned to control the movements of an avatar arm, a virtual arm that doesn't exist. What you're listening to is the sound of the brain of this monkey as it explores three different visually identical spheres in virtual space. And to get a reward, a drop of orange juice that monkeys love, this animal has to detect, select one of these objects by touching, not by seeing it, by touching it, because every time this virtual hand touches one of the objects, an electrical pulse goes back to the brain of the animal describing the fine texture of the surface of this object, so the animal can judge what is the correct object that he has to grab, and if he does that, he gets a reward without moving a muscle. The perfect Brazilian lunch: not moving a muscle and getting your orange juice.
A interface cerebro-máquina non é física cuántica. Só é investigación do cerebro. Non é máis ca usar sensores para ler os impulsos eléctricos que produce o cerebro ao xerar as ordes locomotoras que deben ser transmitidas á medula espiñal, de xeito que proxectamos sensores que poden ler centos e agora miles destas células cerebrais á vez e achar a partir destes sinais o plan de movemento que produce o cerebro para conseguir que nos despracemos no espazo. E facéndoo, convertemos os sinais en ordes dixitais que calquera dispositivo mecánico, electrónico ou virtual pode entender. Deste xeito, o suxeito imaxina o movemento que el ou ela desexa realizar e o dispositivo obedece a orde do seu cerebro. Ao empregarmos diferentes tipos de sensores no dispositivo, como veredes nuns intres, o cerebro recibe unha resposta que confirma que o movemento voluntario se efectuará nalgures: preto do suxeito, no cuarto contiguo ou nalgún lugar do planeta. E cando o cerebro recibe a resposta consegue o seu obxectivo: a acción de movemento. Este só é un experimento que publicamos hai uns anos, no que lle aprendemos a un mono a controlar, sen mover o seu corpo, os movementos dun brazo avatar, unha extremidade virtual que non existe. O que estades a escoitar é o son do cerebro dun mono mentres examina tres esferas diferentes coa mesma aparencia nun espazo virtual. Se quere obter a recompensa, un trago de zume de laranxa, que lles encanta aos monos, debe seleccionar un destes obxectos, mais o que ten que facer é tocalo non o ten que mirar, senón tocar, xa que cada vez que esta man virtual toca un destes obxectos, un impulso eléctrico é enviado ao seu cerebro e describe a textura precisa da súa superficie para que o animal poida xulgar cal é o obxecto que ten que apañar e se o fai ben, consegue a recompensa sen sequera mover un dedo. O aperitivo brasileiro perfecto: non mover un dedo e conseguir un zume de laranxa.
So as we saw this happening, we actually came and proposed the idea that we had published 15 years ago. We reenacted this paper. We got it out of the drawers, and we proposed that perhaps we could get a human being that is paralyzed to actually use the brain-machine interface to regain mobility. The idea was that if you suffered -- and that can happen to any one of us. Let me tell you, it's very sudden. It's a millisecond of a collision, a car accident that transforms your life completely. If you have a complete lesion of the spinal cord, you cannot move because your brainstorms cannot reach your muscles. However, your brainstorms continue to be generated in your head. Paraplegic, quadriplegic patients dream about moving every night. They have that inside their head. The problem is how to get that code out of it and make the movement be created again.
De feito, cando o logramos, viñemos e propuxemos a idea que publicaramos 15 anos antes. Retomamos a investigación. Recuperámola do caixón e suxerimos probar cun ser humano con parálise a interface cerebro-máquina para que recuperase a mobilidade. A lesión de paraplexía podería sufrila calquera de nós, permitídeme que volo diga, é de súpeto. Pode producila un choque de 1 ms, un accidente de automóbil que cambia totalmente a nosa vida. Se tiverdes unha lesión na medula espiñal, non poderedes desprazarvos: os impulsos cerebrais non chegarán aos músculos. Non obstante, estes impulsos seguen xerándose nas vosas cabezas. Os pacientes parapléxicos ou tetrapléxicos soñan con moverse todas as noites. Téñeno nas súas cabezas. O problema é como extraer o código da cabeza e conseguir que se efectúe o movemento.
So what we proposed was, let's create a new body. Let's create a robotic vest. And that's exactly why Juliano could kick that ball just by thinking, because he was wearing the first brain-controlled robotic vest that can be used by paraplegic, quadriplegic patients to move and to regain feedback.
O que propuxemos foi crear un corpo novo: imos deseñar un colete robótico! E por iso Juliano puido xutar o balón co pensamento, porque levaba o primeiro colete robótico controlado polo cerebro que pode ser empregado por pacientes parapléxicos ou tetrapléxicos para moverse e obter un sinal de resposta.
That was the original idea, 15 years ago. What I'm going to show you is how 156 people from 25 countries all over the five continents of this beautiful Earth, dropped their lives, dropped their patents, dropped their dogs, wives, kids, school, jobs, and congregated to come to Brazil for 18 months to actually get this done. Because a couple years after Brazil was awarded the World Cup, we heard that the Brazilian government wanted to do something meaningful in the opening ceremony in the country that reinvented and perfected soccer until we met the Germans, of course. (Laughter) But that's a different talk, and a different neuroscientist needs to talk about that. But what Brazil wanted to do is to showcase a completely different country, a country that values science and technology, and can give a gift to millions, 25 million people around the world that cannot move any longer because of a spinal cord injury. Well, we went to the Brazilian government and to FIFA and proposed, well, let's have the kickoff of the 2014 World Cup be given by a Brazilian paraplegic using a brain-controlled exoskeleton that allows him to kick the ball and to feel the contact of the ball. They looked at us, thought that we were completely nuts, and said, "Okay, let's try." We had 18 months to do everything from zero, from scratch. We had no exoskeleton, we had no patients, we had nothing done. These people came all together and in 18 months, we got eight patients in a routine of training and basically built from nothing this guy, that we call Bra-Santos Dumont 1. The first brain-controlled exoskeleton to be built was named after the most famous Brazilian scientist ever, Alberto Santos Dumont, who, on October 19, 1901, created and flew himself the first controlled airship on air in Paris for a million people to see. Sorry, my American friends, I live in North Carolina, but it was two years before the Wright Brothers flew on the coast of North Carolina. (Applause) Flight control is Brazilian. (Laughter)
Esta foi a idea orixinal hai 15 anos. O que vos vou mostrar é como 156 persoas de 25 países dos cinco continentes deste marabilloso planeta Terra deixaron as súas vidas e os seus contratos, tamén os seus cans, parellas, fillos, escolas e traballos e reuníronse para vir a Brasil durante 18 meses para desenvolvela, xa que dous anos despois de saber que a Copa sería en Brasil, oímos que o goberno quería facer algo significativo na cerimonia de apertura no país no que se reinventou e perfeccionou o fútbol, ata que coñecemos aos alemáns, claro. (Risas) Mais ese é outro tema e outro neurocientífico deberá falarvos diso noutra conferencia. (Risas) Mais o que Brasil quería facer era exhibir un país moi diferente que valora a ciencia e a tecnoloxía e pode agasallar a 25 millóns de persoas de todo o mundo que perderon a mobilidade por unha lesión na medula. Pois acudimos ao goberno brasileiro e á FIFA e propuxemos o seguinte: Por que non fai o saque inicial da Copa do Mundo unha persoa brasileira de mobilidade reducida usando un exoesqueleto que lle permita xutar o balón e que lle axude a sentilo? Quedaron mirando para nós coidando que estabamos tolos e responderon: "Veña, intentémolo". (Risas) Tivemos un prazo de 18 meses para facelo todo, dende o principio. Non tiñamos nin exoesqueleto nin pacientes. Non tiñamos nada feito. Todos eles viñeron xuntos e en 18 meses, oito pacientes realizaron unha rutina de adestramento e practicamente construímos desde cero este colega que bautizamos como "Brasil Santos Dumont 1". O primeiro exoesqueleto controlado polo cerebro construído ten o nome do científico brasileiro máis afamado que existiu, Alberto Santos Dumont, quen o día 19 de outubro de 1901, inventou e el mesmo pilotou o primeiro dirixible aéreo á vista dun millón de persoas na cidade de París. Síntoo, meus amigos norteamericanos, vivo en Carolina do Norte, mais foi dous anos antes de que o fixeran os irmáns Wright, de que despegaran na costa de Carolina do Norte. (Aplausos) O control aéreo inventámolo nós, os brasileiros.
So we went together with these guys and we basically put this exoskeleton together, 15 degrees of freedom, hydraulic machine that can be commanded by brain signals recorded by a non-invasive technology called electroencephalography that can basically allow the patient to imagine the movements and send his commands to the controls, the motors, and get it done. This exoskeleton was covered with an artificial skin invented by Gordon Cheng, one of my greatest friends, in Munich, to allow sensation from the joints moving and the foot touching the ground to be delivered back to the patient through a vest, a shirt. It is a smart shirt with micro-vibrating elements that basically delivers the feedback and fools the patient's brain by creating a sensation that it is not a machine that is carrying him, but it is he who is walking again.
(Risas) Así que, da man destes rapaces, puxémonos a armar o exoesqueleto, unha máquina hidráulica de 15 graos de liberdade que pode ser dirixida polos sinais eléctricos do cerebro captados por unha tecnoloxía non invasiva chamada electroencelografía que lle permite ao paciente imaxinar os movementos e enviar as ordes motrices aos controis para executar unha tarefa. O exoesqueleto foi cuberto cunha pel artificial inventada en Múnic por Gordon Cheng, un dos meus mellores amigos, que favorece que a sensibilidade das articulacións e dos pés no chan lle chegue ao paciente a través dun colete. É unha camisiña, unha peciña de roupa cuns microvibradores. Envía os sinais de resposta ao paciente enganando ao seu cerebro e orixinando a sensación de que non é a maquina a que o leva senón que é el o que está camiñando de novo.
So we got this going, and what you'll see here is the first time one of our patients, Bruno, actually walked. And he takes a few seconds because we are setting everything, and you are going to see a blue light cutting in front of the helmet because Bruno is going to imagine the movement that needs to be performed, the computer is going to analyze it, Bruno is going to certify it, and when it is certified, the device starts moving under the command of Bruno's brain. And he just got it right, and now he starts walking. After nine years without being able to move, he is walking by himself. And more than that -- (Applause) -- more than just walking, he is feeling the ground, and if the speed of the exo goes up, he tells us that he is walking again on the sand of Santos, the beach resort where he used to go before he had the accident. That's why the brain is creating a new sensation in Bruno's head.
E puxémolo en marcha. O que vedes foi a primeira vez que Bruno, un dos nosos pacientes, camiñou. E lévalle uns intres, xa que temos que poñelo todo a punto. Veredes unha luz azul na parte dianteira do casco, pois Bruno vai imaxinar o movemento que vai executar, o ordenador vai analizalo e el vai confirmalo. Unha vez que o confirme, o dispositivo comezará a moverse seguindo as ordes do cerebro de Bruno. E como o fixo todo ben, agora comeza a camiñar. Tras nove anos sen poder moverse, está andando por si mesmo. (Aplausos) É máis ca iso. (Aplausos) Máis ca só camiñar, Bruno está a sentir o chan e se a velocidade do exoesqueleto aumenta dinos que está camiñando de novo na area de Santos, a praia onde adoitaba ir antes de sufrir o accidente. O motivo é que o seu cerebro produce unha sensación na cabeza de Bruno.
So he walks, and at the end of the walk -- I am running out of time already -- he says, "You know, guys, I need to borrow this thing from you when I get married, because I wanted to walk to the priest and see my bride and actually be there by myself. Of course, he will have it whenever he wants.
Así que camiñou e ao rematar a andaina --xa me estou pasando do tempo-- díxonos: "Oídes, rapaces?, tendes que mo emprestar para a miña voda porque quero camiñar cara ao cura, ver á miña moza e estar alí por min mesmo de verdade". Abofé que poderá usalo cando quixer. E isto foi o que quixemos mostrar na Copa do Mundo e non puidemos.
And this is what we wanted to show during the World Cup, and couldn't, because for some mysterious reason, FIFA cut its broadcast in half. What you are going to see very quickly is Juliano Pinto in the exo doing the kick a few minutes before we went to the pitch and did the real thing in front of the entire crowd, and the lights you are going to see just describe the operation. Basically, the blue lights pulsating indicate that the exo is ready to go. It can receive thoughts and it can deliver feedback, and when Juliano makes the decision to kick the ball, you are going to see two streams of green and yellow light coming from the helmet and going to the legs, representing the mental commands that were taken by the exo to actually make that happen. And in basically 13 seconds, Juliano actually did. You can see the commands. He gets ready, the ball is set, and he kicks. And the most amazing thing is, 10 seconds after he did that, and looked at us on the pitch, he told us, celebrating as you saw, "I felt the ball." And that's priceless. (Applause)
Por algunha misteriosa razón, a FIFA cortou a emisión á metade. O que ides ver rapidamente é a Juliano Pinto co exoesqueleto executando o lanzamento uns minutos antes de que foramos ao campo e xutase o balón perante o público. As luces que ides ver describen a operación. As luces azuis intermitentes indican que o exoesqueleto está listo. Pode recibir os pensamentos e entregar unha resposta. E cando Bruno toma a decisión de xutar o balón, veredes dúas correntes de luz, unha verde e outra amarela, que proveñen do casco e se dirixen ás pernas e representan as ordes mentais que foron recollidas polo exoesqueleto para conseguir que ocorra. Finalmente, a Juliano lévalle uns 13 s conseguir facelo. Podedes ver as ordes no vídeo. Juliano prepárase, colócase perante o balón e xútao. Vouvos dicir o máis emocionante: 10 s despois de que o fixera mirando para nós no estadio exclamou mentres o celebraba, como vistes: "Sentín o balón!". E iso non ten prezo. (Aplausos)
So where is this going to go? I have two minutes to tell you that it's going to the limits of your imagination. Brain-actuating technology is here. This is the latest: We just published this a year ago, the first brain-to-brain interface that allows two animals to exchange mental messages so that one animal that sees something coming from the environment can send a mental SMS, a torpedo, a neurophysiological torpedo, to the second animal, and the second animal performs the act that he needed to perform without ever knowing what the environment was sending as a message, because the message came from the first animal's brain.
E ata onde imos chegar? Teño 2 min para contárvolo. Supera os límites da vosa imaxinación. A tecnoloxía controlada pola mente xa está aquí. O máis recente publicámolo hai un ano: a primeira interface cerebro-cerebro. Permítelles a dous animais intercambiar mensaxes mentais de xeito que se algún deles detecta que un elemento xorde no contorno pode enviarlle un SMS mental, é dicir, unha mensaxe curta co cerebro, un torpedo neurofisiolóxico, ao outro animal e este realiza a acción que precisa efectuar sen sequera ter coñecemento ningún de qué foi o que xurdiu no contorno. Mais a mensaxe proveu da mente doutro animal.
So this is the first demo. I'm going to be very quick because I want to show you the latest. But what you see here is the first rat getting informed by a light that is going to show up on the left of the cage that he has to press the left cage to basically get a reward. He goes there and does it. And the same time, he is sending a mental message to the second rat that didn't see any light, and the second rat, in 70 percent of the times is going to press the left lever and get a reward without ever experiencing the light in the retina.
Esta é a primeira demostración. Vou apurar para mostrarvos a última investigación. Describirei o que ides ver. É a primeira rata que será informada por un indicador lumínico que se prenderá na parte esquerda da gaiola de que debe premer esa zona para obter unha recompensa. Vai para aí e faino. Ao mesmo tempo, mándalle unha mensaxe mental á outra rata, quen non percibe ningunha luz. E a outra rata, o 70% dos casos, preme a panca esquerda e consegue a recompensa sen sequera percibir a luz na retina.
Well, we took this to a little higher limit by getting monkeys to collaborate mentally in a brain net, basically to donate their brain activity and combine them to move the virtual arm that I showed you before, and what you see here is the first time the two monkeys combine their brains, synchronize their brains perfectly to get this virtual arm to move. One monkey is controlling the x dimension, the other monkey is controlling the y dimension. But it gets a little more interesting when you get three monkeys in there and you ask one monkey to control x and y, the other monkey to control y and z, and the third one to control x and z, and you make them all play the game together, moving the arm in 3D into a target to get the famous Brazilian orange juice. And they actually do. The black dot is the average of all these brains working in parallel, in real time. That is the definition of a biological computer, interacting by brain activity and achieving a motor goal.
Quixemos dar un paso máis na investigación coa colaboración mental entre monos nunha rede cerebral coa que compartir a actividade cerebral e combinala para mover o brazo virtual que vos ensinei antes. O que estades a ver é a primeira vez que dous monos coordinan os seus cerebros e sincronízanos perfectamente para mover o brazo virtual. Un mono controla o eixe das abscisas e o outro o das ordenadas. Tórnase un pouquiño máis interesante cando o teñen que facer tres monos. Pídeslle ao primeiro que controle "x" e "y", ao segundo "y" e "z" e ao terceiro que dirixa "x" e "z", de xeito que participan no xogo xuntos e moven o brazo en 3D cara a un obxectivo para obter o afamado zume de laranxa brasileiro. E, de feito, conségueno. O punto negro representa a media destes cerebros traballando en paralelo e en tempo real. Esta é a definición dunha computadora biolóxica: interacción da actividade cerebral para conseguir unha acción de movemento.
Where is this going? We have no idea. We're just scientists. (Laughter) We are paid to be children, to basically go to the edge and discover what is out there. But one thing I know: One day, in a few decades, when our grandchildren surf the Net just by thinking, or a mother donates her eyesight to an autistic kid who cannot see, or somebody speaks because of a brain-to-brain bypass, some of you will remember that it all started on a winter afternoon in a Brazilian soccer field with an impossible kick.
E ata onde imos chegar? Non temos nin idea. (Risas) Só somos científicos. (Risas) Págannos por ser rapaces. Por levalo todo ao límite e descubrir que hai aí fóra. Mais sei de certo que un día dentro duns decenios, cando os nosos netos naveguen por Internet co pensamento, unha nai doe a súa vista ao seu fillo autista cego ou alguén fale grazas a un by-pass cerebro-cerebro, algún de vos lembrará que todo comezou unha tarde de inverno nun estadio de fútbol brasileiro cun lanzamento imposible.
Thank you.
Graciñas.
(Applause)
(Aplausos)
Thank you.
Grazas. Grazas.
Bruno Giussani: Miguel, thank you for sticking to your time. I actually would have given you a couple more minutes, because there are a couple of points we want to develop, and, of course, clearly it seems that we need connected brains to figure out where this is going. So let's connect all this together. So if I'm understanding correctly, one of the monkeys is actually getting a signal and the other monkey is reacting to that signal just because the first one is receiving it and transmitting the neurological impulse.
-Grazas. Bruno Giussani: -Imos aló. Grazas por axustarse ao tempo. Concederiámoslle uns minutiños máis para resolver un par de cuestións. Semella que precisamos cerebros conectados para achar onde imos chegar. (Risas) Así que, por que non os conectamos? Se o entendín ben, un mono recibirá o sinal e o outro reaccionará a ela dado que o primeiro lle transmitirá o impulso neurolóxico tras recibila.
Miguel Nicolelis: No, it's a little different. No monkey knows of the existence of the other two monkeys. They are getting a visual feedback in 2D, but the task they have to accomplish is 3D. They have to move an arm in three dimensions. But each monkey is only getting the two dimensions on the video screen that the monkey controls. And to get that thing done, you need at least two monkeys to synchronize their brains, but the ideal is three. So what we found out is that when one monkey starts slacking down, the other two monkeys enhance their performance to get the guy to come back, so this adjusts dynamically, but the global synchrony remains the same. Now, if you flip without telling the monkey the dimensions that each brain has to control, like this guy is controlling x and y, but he should be controlling now y and z, instantaneously, that animal's brain forgets about the old dimensions and it starts concentrating on the new dimensions. So what I need to say is that no Turing machine, no computer can predict what a brain net will do. So we will absorb technology as part of us. Technology will never absorb us. It's simply impossible.
Miguel Nicolelis: Non é así exactamente. Ningún mono sabe que hai outros dous. BG: Xa. MN: Reciben impresións visuais en 2D, mais teñen que realizar unha tarefa en 3D. Deben mover o brazo tendo en conta tres dimensións. Porén, cada mono só ve as dúas dimensións que controla na pantalla. E para cumprir o seu cometido, precísase polo menos que dous monos sincronicen cadanseus cerebros, mais o óptimo é que o fagan tres. O que achamos foi que se un mono se relaxa os outros dous esfórzanse máis para facelo reaccionar, así que se produce un axuste dinámico e a sincronía xeral segue sendo a mesma. Se invertemos as dimensións que controlan os monos sen llelo advertir, por exemplo, este mono dirixe "x" e "y", mais debería dirixir "y" e "z", instantaneamente o cerebro do animal esquece as dimensións antigas e comeza a concentrarse nas novas. O que quero dicir é que ningunha máquina de Turing, ningunha computadora pode predicir o funcionamento dunha rede cerebral. Se absorbemos a tecnoloxía coma se for parte de nós, a tecnoloxía endexamais nos absorberá a nós. É sinxelamente imposible.
BG: How many times have you tested this? And how many times have you succeeded versus failed?
BG: Cantas veces o probastes? Cantas tivestes éxito e cantas fracasastes?
MN: Oh, tens of times. With the three monkeys? Oh, several times. I wouldn't be able to talk about this here unless I had done it a few times. And I forgot to mention, because of time, that just three weeks ago, a European group just demonstrated the first man-to-man brain-to-brain connection. BG: And how does that play? MN: There was one bit of information -- big ideas start in a humble way -- but basically the brain activity of one subject was transmitted to a second object, all non-invasive technology. So the first subject got a message, like our rats, a visual message, and transmitted it to the second subject. The second subject received a magnetic pulse in the visual cortex, or a different pulse, two different pulses. In one pulse, the subject saw something. On the other pulse, he saw something different. And he was able to verbally indicate what was the message the first subject was sending through the Internet across continents.
MN: Decenas de veces. Cos tres monos? Abofé que si. Non sería quen de falar disto aquí a non ser que o tivese probado. Esquecín mencionar, pola falta de tempo, que hai só tres semanas, un grupo europeo demostrou a primeira conexión cerebral entre seres humanos. BG: E como participaron? MN: Foi cunha mensaxe curtiña. As grandes ideas comezan modestamente. Así e todo, basicamente, a actividade cerebral dun suxeito foi transmitida a un segundo obxecto, mediante tecnoloxía non invasiva, de xeito que o primeiro percibiu unha mensaxe visual, coma no caso das ratas, e comunicoulla ao segundo, quen recibiu un impulso magnético no córtex visual ou outro impulso: foron dous diferentes en total. Cun impulso veu unha cousa e co outro algo diferente e foi quen de indicar verbalmente a mensaxe que lle foi enviada a través de Internet e en diferentes continentes. BG: Vaia! Entón esa é a meta.
Moderator: Wow. Okay, that's where we are going. That's the next TED Talk at the next conference. Miguel Nicolelis, thank you. MN: Thank you, Bruno. Thank you.
Será o seguinte relatorio TED na próxima conferencia. Miguel Nicolelis, grazas. MN: Grazas, Bruno.