A mind control device with a long range and large volume has been unveiled in South Korea, with plans to use the technology for non-invasive medical procedures.
Researchers from the Korean Institute for Basic Science (IBS) developed the hardware that remotely manipulates the brain using magnetic fields, and tested the technology by to induce ‘maternal’ instincts in their female subjects: mice.
In another test, they exposed a group of lab mice to magnetic fields that were supposed to reduce appetite. This led to a 10 percent weight loss, or about 4.3 grams.
“This is the world’s first technology that allows specific brain areas to be freely controlled using magnetic fields,” said the professor of chemistry and nanomedicine who helped lead the new initiative.
A remote mind control device has been unveiled in South Korea – with plans to use the technology for ‘non-invasive’ medical procedures. In one test, researchers exposed lab mice to magnetic fields designed to reduce appetite, leading to a 10 percent loss in body weight (4.3 grams)
Researcher Dr. Cheon Jinwoo, director of the IBS Center for Nanomedicine in South Korea, said he expects the new hardware to be used for various applications in healthcare, where he said it is desperately needed.
“We expect it to be widely used in research on brain functions, advanced artificial neural networks, two-way brain-computer interface technologies, and new treatments for neurological disorders,” said Dr. Cheon.
But despite the science fiction nature of remote mind control, health experts note that magnetic fields have been used successfully in medical imaging for decades.
‘The concept of using magnetic fields to manipulate biological systems is now well established,’ Doctor Felix Leroya senior scientist at Spain’s Instituto de Neurociencias, wrote in an opinion piece accompanying the new study in Nature Nanotechnology.
“It has applications in several areas,” he noted, “magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), transcranial magnetic stimulation and magnetic hyperthermia for cancer treatment.”
The novelty added by the IBS team from South Korea was the genetic engineering of specialized nanomaterials, the role of which within neurons in the brain could be remotely tuned via carefully selected magnetic fields.
The technique, formally called magnetomechanical genetics (MMG), served as a guide for Dr. Cheon and his colleagues as they developed their brain-modulation technology.
In the new study, published in July in Nature Nanotechnology, the team called their invention Nano-MIND, for “Nano-magnetogenetic interface for neurodynamics.
Dr. Cheon Jinwoo, director of the IBS Center for Nanomedicine in South Korea, said he expects the new hardware to be used for various healthcare applications where it is desperately needed. Above, a diagram of the magnetic device in which the study’s lab mice were remotely controlled
In the group’s test of maternal instincts, magnetic stimulation of certain female lab rats encouraged them to find and retrieve their lost rat “pups” more quickly in a maze-like course. The stimulated female rats began approaching the pups more quickly – an average of 16 seconds faster
The scientists designed special mice for their experiments, using a gene-replacement technique known to researchers as Cre-Lox recombination.
These genetically engineered lab mice developed more magnetically sensitive “ion channels” that act as gates in their neurons, or nervous system cells, allowing certain molecules and atoms to enter at certain times and rates.
In the group’s test of maternal instinct, MMG stimulation of certain female lab rats encouraged them to find and retrieve their lost rat pups more quickly through a maze-like course.
The female rats stimulated by Nano-MIND began approaching the pups more quickly — 16 seconds faster on average — and “quickly retrieved all three pups in all trials,” the researchers wrote.
The team also conducted a two-week experiment with mice in the control group and the experimental group, looking at how these genetically engineered animals would respond to magnetic pulses from Nano-MIND that encouraged them to eat more or less.
The technology appeared to induce the mice to both overeat and undereat.
In the experiment where the MMG signal prompted the mice to eat, their body weight increased by an average of about 7.5 grams. This equates to a weight gain of about 18 percent.
The fasting magnetic pulse caused the mice to lose less weight (10 percent weight loss, or about 4.3 grams), but it did not cause the mice to become significantly slower or less able to move.
“Feeding less had no effect on locomotion,” they wrote, implying that the effect was solely due to appetite and that there was no other impairment to the mice’s functioning.
The technology, Dr. Cheon and his team wrote, will be used primarily to help health researchers understand which parts of the brain and the rest of the neurological system are responsible for which moods and other behaviors.
But in his opinion piece on the Nano-MIND innovation and its gene replacement aspect, Dr. Leroy in Spain warned against jumping into human testing too quickly.
“Further research is needed to assess potential cumulative effects, including neuroadaptation or neurotoxicity,” Dr. Leroy said.