According to reports, scientists have connected the brains of several rats and monkeys and formed a 'brainet', which they used to co-operate and learn as a superbrain. Researchers linked brains of monkeys and the rats in two different experiments.

As a result of this connection, the animals were able to exchange sensory and motor information for controlling movement or doing computations. For instance, researchers connected the brains of rhesus macaque monkeys that teamed up for controlling the movements of the arm of a virtual avatar observed on a digital display facing them.

As per researchers, each animal was controlling two of three dimensions of movement for the same arm as they were instructed together for touching a moving target.

Scientists linked the brains of four rats for completing simple computational tasks such as storage, pattern recognition and retrieval of sensory information, and also weather forecasting. Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs), which are computational systems, let subjects make use of their brain signals for controlling the movements of artificial devices, like exoskeletons or robotic arms directly.

According to Miguel Nicolelis, co-director of the Center for Neuroengineering at the Duke University School of Medicine and principal investigator for the study, "This is the first demonstration of a shared brain-machine interface, a paradigm that has been translated successfully over the past decades from studies in animals all the way to clinical applications. We foresee that shared BMIs will follow the same track". Nicolelis added that it could be converted to clinical practice in a little while.