Findings of a new research have pointed towards better functioning when two brains are connected together to perform certain tasks rather than one. It has been showed for the first time that a specific behavior could be performed by networking multiple animal brains and harnessing them, said Miguel Nicolelis, a professor of neurobiology and biomedical engineering at Duke University and an expert in brain-machine interfaces.

Two separate studies have been published by Nicolelis and his colleagues to provide insight into experiments on brains. One study involved rats and the other involved monkeys. The work showed that how such ‘brainets’ could make it possible to combine electrical outputs from the neurons of multiple animals to perform simple computational tasks.

The researchers built a brain network by implanting microwire electrode arrays. These were capable of recording signals as well as delivering pulses of electrical stimulation to neurons in the same region in multiple rat brains.

The researchers conducted tests to see how rat brain networks performed basic computing tasks by delivering electrical pulse patterns derived from a digital image. The electrical outputs were recorded and measurements were done on the efficacy of the network of neurons to process that image.

Information about barometric pressure and temperature was delivered in another test and the probability of rain was computed by the brain network. In another experiment, the researchers found that monkeys’ brains synchronized very quickly after researchers combined two or three brains to perform a virtual motor task in three dimensions.

Nicolelis says that significant advancements could be made in biomedical science by using the results of the study.