[smart (OP)]

I'm looking for inputs on the validity of EEG cloning/heterodyning technology to remotely transfer the evoked potentials of a brain into a EEG record for decoding neural responses in the visual cortex. Is this science-fiction or a true application of EEG neuroimaging device?

eVil StOner

 

[alancalverd]

Most people use a chart plotter or multichannel ADC. No need for heterodyning.

[Bored chemist]

I'm looking for inputs on the validity of EEG cloning/heterodyning technology to remotely transfer the evoked potentials of a brain into a EEG record for decoding neural responses in the visual cortex. Is this science-fiction or a true application of EEG neuroimaging device?

eVil StOner

"Is this science-fiction...?"
Yes.

[evan_au]

the validity of EEG cloning/heterodyning technology

- EEG is detection of electrical noise from the brain, using electrodes on the scalp. It is the aggregated noise of billions of firing neurons.
- cloning is the production of a new organism from a body cell of the parent organism. It has nothing to do with EEG.
- heterodyning is producing a signal at a new frequency by mixing an incoming signal with a specific frequency with a reference frequency. Since the EEG is an aggregate of billions of fairly wideband nerve impulses, it has no specific frequency (although the noise amplitude is modulated by "brain waves"). Since the EEG is a low-frequency signal already, heterodyning would seem to have little value.

In any case, I suspect that it has no validity outside your imagination.

for decoding neural responses in the visual cortex

Signals in the visual cortex are extremely complex and specific to individuals; I doubt that an EEG could distinguish what you are seeing.
Even fMRI has trouble distinguishing more than a small number of reference images, after a period of training with those exact images.

Rather than distinguishing particular images in the visual cortex, an EEG can detect an inclination to act on a displayed image, based on the P300 EEG signal. This is recorded from the parietal lobe, rather than the visual cortex.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P300_(neuroscience)

Is this science-fiction or a true application of EEG neuroimaging device?

I also vote for science-fiction.

Just because you are paranoid, it doesn't mean people aren't out to get you!
But people on this forum seem fairly tolerant, for the most part...

[evan_au]

remotely transfer the evoked potentials of a brain

Good pickup of electrical signals from the brain requires electrodes applied to the surface of the brain - inserted through a hole in the skull. Each electrode picks up signals from a few neurons, but current technology is limited to around 100 electrodes. Rather intrusive surgery!

EEG is collected from electrodes on the scalp, outside the skull. Each electrode picks up signals from billions of neurons, but current technology is limited to around 100 electrodes. The signals are much less distinct, since they have to get through the skull.

Remote neural monitoring (eg from meters away) would imply electrodes that picked up signals from trillions of neurons - it not only has to get through the scull, it has to travel though the air, and compete with other electrical signals around us.

If it can't be detected by EEG electrodes attached to your scalp, it can't be detected from meters away!
In any case, keep your mobile phone with you; its low level of electrical noise while it is idling will obliterate any neural signals you are transmitting!

[smart (OP)]

EEG is collected from electrodes on the scalp, outside the skull. Each electrode picks up signals from billions of neurons, but current technology is limited to around 100 electrodes. The signals are much less distinct, since they have to get through the skull.

Take a look at this: https://www.google.com/patents/US20130127708

[alancalverd]

You don't need direct resisitive connection to the scalp. You can use a SQUID to detect electrical current flows in the brain, and I am quite sure that They have soved the problem of how to isolate tk's brain from all the electrical noise around it, and allow the SQUID to see through his tinfoil helmet. The only way he will know he is being monitored is by the smell of boiling helium.

The idea of a brain-computer link with feedback was demonstrated about 25 years ago at Graz Technical University.

The best way to find out what is happening in someone's visual cortex is to photograph what he is looking at.

[smart (OP)]

Although it does not reference precisely the use of EEG technology, this article presents a good overview of the concepts of "mind uploading".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_uploading

[RD]

... The only way he will know he is being monitored is by the smell of boiling helium.

If Helium has a smell, someone should edit wikipedia ...

Helium ... has no color or smell.

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium

Maybe an oderant is added to help detect leaks.

[alancalverd]

... The only way he will know he is being monitored is by the smell of boiling helium.

If Helium has a smell, someone should edit wikipedia ...

Helium ... has no color or smell.

My point precisely.