A “long-distance” and “large-capacity” remote-controlled mind control device has been unveiled in South Korea, with plans to use the technology for “non-invasive” medical procedures.
Researchers at the Korea Institute for Basic Science (IBS) have developed hardware that uses magnetic fields to remotely control the brain. Induce “maternal” instincts in female subject mice.
In another experiment, the team exposed a test group of lab mice to a magnetic field designed to suppress appetite, causing them to lose 10 percent of their body weight, or about 4.3 grams.
“This is the first technology in the world to use magnetic fields to freely control specific brain regions,” said the professor of chemistry and nanomedicine who is leading the new effort.
A remote mind control device has been unveiled in South Korea, with plans to use the technology for “non-invasive” medical procedures. In one experiment, researchers exposed lab mice to a magnetic field designed to suppress appetite, causing them to lose 10 percent of their body weight (4.3 grams).
The researcher, Dr. Jeong Jin-woo, director of the IBS Nanomedicine Center in South Korea, said he hopes the new hardware will be used for a variety of badly needed medical applications.
“We hope that this technology will be widely used in research to understand brain function, advanced artificial neural networks, two-way brain-computer interface technologies, and new treatments for neurological diseases,” Dr Chong said.
But despite the science fiction nature of remote mind control, medical experts point out that magnetic fields have been used effectively in medical imaging for decades.
“The concept of using magnetic fields to manipulate biological systems is now well established,” Dr. Felix Leroy, a senior scientist at the Spanish Neuroscience Institute, wrote in an editorial accompanying the new study in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
“This has applications in a variety of areas,” he noted. “Magnetic resonance imaging. [MRI]transcranial magnetic stimulation, and magnetic hyperthermia for cancer treatment.
What’s new for the Korean IBS team is that they’ve genetically engineered special nanomaterials whose roles within neurons in the brain can be remotely tuned via carefully selected magnetic fields.
This technique, formally called magnetomechanogenetics (MMG), was what Dr Chung and his colleagues used to develop their brain modulation technique.
In a new study published in July in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the team called their invention “Nanomind,” an acronym for “Nanomagnetic Genetic Interface for Neuromechanics.”
Dr. Jung Jin-woo, director of the IBS Nanomedicine Center in South Korea, said he hopes the new hardware will be used for a variety of needed medical applications. Above, a diagram of the magnetic device that remotely controlled the mice in the study.
In a study investigating maternal instincts, researchers exposed certain female lab rats to magnetic stimulation, which made them more likely to find and collect lost “pups” in a maze-like environment — the stimulated female rats began approaching their pups an average of 16 seconds sooner.
The scientists used a gene replacement technique known among researchers as Cre-Lox recombination to engineer special mice for the experiments.
These genetically engineered lab mice develop “ion channels” that are more sensitive to magnets, which act as gates within neurons or nervous system cells, allowing certain molecules or atoms to enter at specific times and at specific speeds.
In a test of maternal instinct conducted by the research group, certain female laboratory rats were given MMG stimulation and became more likely to find and collect lost “babies” in a maze-like course.
The NanoMind-stimulated female rats approached the pups an average of 16 seconds faster and “quickerly retrieved the three pups in every trial,” the researchers wrote.
The team also conducted a two-week experiment using control and experimental mice to see how these genetically engineered animals responded to nanomind magnetic impulses that encouraged them to eat more or less.
The technique proved capable of encouraging mice to both overeat and undereat.
In experiments in which mice were encouraged to eat using MMG signals, their weight increased by an average of about 7.5 grams, which represents an approximately 18 percent weight gain.
Magnetic stimulation during fasting reduced weight loss in the mice (a 10% loss of body weight, or about 4.3 grams), but did not significantly slow down their movement or impair their motor skills.
“Reduced food intake had no effect on motor performance,” the researchers wrote, suggesting that the effect was purely on appetite and did not impair other aspects of the mice’s behavioral performance.
Dr. Chung and his team wrote that the technique will be most directly useful in helping medical researchers understand which parts of the brain, and the rest of the nervous system, are involved in mood and other behaviors.
But Spain’s Dr Leroy, in an opinion piece on the NanoMind innovation and its gene replacement aspects, warned against rushing into human testing.
“Further studies are needed to evaluate potential cumulative effects, including neuroadaptation and neurotoxicity,” Dr. Leroy advised.