An upcoming one-way pager will be a relatively simple addition, as opposed to a planned MP3 and digital music encoder and decoder from Innogear.
Researchers also found that rewarding the encoder alongside the decoder created a virtuous loop, as treating the first rat for a job well done focused its attention and improved the signal strength.
There was also a feedback system, denying the encoder rat an extra reward if the decoder rat did not press the correct lever.
The best decoder rats correctly mimicked their corresponding encoder partners 70 per cent of the time.
In Prof Nicolelis' first experiment, the encoder rat got a bigger reward if the decoder also made the right choice, leading to two-way neural collaboration between the two rats.
"We saw that when the decoder rat committed an error, the encoder basically changed both its brain function and behaviour to make it easier for its partner to get it right, " he said.
The majority of the time, the decoder rat performed the same action as the encoder.
The team members then conducted trials to determine how well the decoder animal could decipher the brain input from the encoder rat to choose the correct lever.
The encoder rat's brain signals then became clearer, giving the decoder a greater chance of interpreting the message correctly, Prof Nicolelis noted.
In the second experiment, a scan of the decoder's brain showed that it began to represent the encoder's whiskers as well as its own whiskers in the tactile cortex.
In order to receive the reward, the decoder rat would have to rely on the cue transmitted from the encoder via the brain-to-brain interface.
Electrodes picked up the brain activity of the first rat, the "encoder", and fed it over the internet into the brain of its partner, the "decoder", which had the same levers in its cage but received no visual cues about which one to press.
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