Hacking the Mind (Part 2): A Sense of Self

Having read this far you might wonder if people really will be walking around with electrical and optical circuits embedded in their brain.  Those circuits would be connected to an implanted computer and power source, to modify thoughts and to change behaviour based on pre-conscious signals. 

This idea may seem far fetched and a bit creepy. It pushes boundaries of what we think a self is, a ponderous subject I will move to in subsequent posts.  It is also one aspect linking optogenetics and thought-stopping, in my mind, to personality disorders.  I only mention it briefly here.

3. Self Sense in Sociopaths

It's well-accepted that sociopaths maintain a more fluid sense of self than neuro-typicals. The sense of self in people with borderline personality disorder is also atypical. 

Individual descriptions of self-identity, self-respect, and  a self itself vary widely. There is no one size fits all answer.  For example, one can find lengthy discussions on internet forums about theses senses of self, some claiming indeed no sense of self as is commonly understood.  Look, for instance, in the comments section of ME Thomas blog sociopathworld.com, particularly in a "viewpoints" posting. (This requires hitting the 'load more' button at least four times to see all the comments, or you can take my word for it.) 

If one agrees that personality disorders exist together with less extreme neurological forms, which I call personality types -- those who are not disordered but differ in fundamental ways from the typical case, it goes without saying that such types would not only perceive others in vastly different ways, as objects for instance, but also themselves.

4. Neural implants, thought-stopping and information theory

People are already living with neural, or brain implants to treat conditions like Parkinson's, depression and other neurological defects. As well, research in brain-computer chip interfaces takes place at institutions globally, and is part of the growing dominance of neuroscience as a funding target for governments.

To do thought-stopping, one has to decode the pre-conscious signals in the brain. This problem is not so different than being able to predict epileptic seizures. 

Seizure prediction has for decades been a collaborative effort between doctors and scientists using information theory to decode the brain's activity patterns. This is not to say that seizures are a 'thought', but both are a cascade of signals sent around the brain, so the decoding/prediction problems are not so different in that respect.

More than a decade ago, Kreuz and others developed a set of techniques to validate prediction algorithms, which could enable countermeasures to be taken in advance of the seizure. Those methods, based on information theory, are just as applicable to the EEG time series studied in the past, as they would be for any other set of data from the brain.

For the technorati:

"Measure profile surrogates: A method to validate the performance of epileptic seizure prediction algorithms" 

Information theory is one of the most beautiful and useful inventions ever made.

Hacking the Mind (Part 2): Are decisions really free?

The first part of 'Hacking the Mind' introduced optogenetics as a proven means to alter behavior in animals, at the flick of a switch.  This post goes a step further: stopping thoughts before they happen. 

In optogenetics, the shift (for instance, from cowering in a corner to exploring) occurs at the time scale we experience consciousness -- in the range of tens of milliseconds to seconds -- not microseconds and not minutes. 

It's roughly the same frames per second (fps) in movies, like the video clip at the above -- a TED talk by Jim Fallon, "Exploring the Mind of a Serial Killer".[1] I'll get to the connection between optogenetics and serial killers at the end of Part 2. It's a winding tour through a brave new world, where technology wires computers and brains together.

1. Thought-stopping technology (TST)

The behavioural levers in optogenetics are pinpoint laser beams carried by fiberoptic threads, painlessly placed into certain regions of the brain that have been genetically engineered to respond to light by producing electrical signals. Optogenetics has been widely tested in mammals like rodents and will likely be widely tested in humans too one day.  

But what if it was possible to stop thoughts or urges, such as an irresistible craving for cigarettes, before the subject is  aware of the thought or feeling? "Searching for the 'Free-Will' Neuron", an article that appeared in a recent issue of Technology Review, shows how this could happen in the not too distant future.  I will be discussing this article in more depth addressing specific questions in this and following posts.

The formation of a particular 'thought' creates distinct signals in the brain, a "pre-conscious" signal, before the subject consciously thinks it.  That time delay sets a lower limit on the marching pace of consciousness. It's easiest to think of consciousness as an observer of brain processes, so there has to be a delay.  Indeed such delays have been experimentally measured.  Interrupt  that pre-conscious brain activity, at the right times and in the right places, and the subject would never know the thought they were going to have, or that it had been erased.

2. What's up next

The number of questions this technology opens up is mind-boggling, from curative or healing (think of compulsive or addictive impulsive cravings) to profoundly dystopian, to everything in between.  

Some of you will probably be able to think of more futuristic outcomes than I. The implications for philosophy are beyond my ability to adequately address, so I'll stick mostly with the former. Any comments along those lines are appreciated, to widen the discussion.  I look forward to reading your thoughts!

In the next posts, I'll explore some of these questions and also highlight the way thought-stopping technology in real time can work.





[1]  Some neuronal processes run faster than others, or are refreshed more often, but tens of milliseconds to seconds is the pace consciousness marches by.

Hacking the Mind (Part 1): optogenetic behavioral control

Is this the future for psychopaths? Image from 
Optogenetics Resource Center.

A friend handed me a recent issue of MIT's Technology Review -- 'Hacking the Soul' -- faintly chuckling it was the oracle he had been seeking. "Do we have a soul -- and how could it be hacked?" he wondered out loud.

Unsurprisingly, the word 'soul' is barely mentioned in this prize-winning journal. Instead, the question is: how can the mind be hacked -- your mind, mine, your bullying boss's, your anxiety prone friend's, your friendly neighbourhood sociopath's, a parole-intent prisoner's...?

As Hippocrates noted more than 2,000 years ago, to understand the mind, start with the brain.[2]  "If my computer can be hacked, why not my brain?" my friend pointed out with a sly grin (or my brain he was, perhaps, diabolically thinking).

1. Hacking Animal Behavior

The bold claim in 'Hacking the Soul'  might blow your mind: developments in neuroscience, namely optogenetics, put "consciousness, free will, memory, learning...on the table now" as objects of scientific investigation and manipulation.  

Controlled, reproducible experiments show that properly prepared animals, including mice and primates, are made to stop fighting mid-fight, start fighting mid-copulation, stop exhibiting behaviours tacked to anxiety or fear, and on and on it goes -- almost instantly after the flip of a switch. 

An anxious mouse will cower in a corner till a switch is flipped and it starts curiously exploring its environment.  Turn off the switch and it goes back to cowering.  Can you imagine being able to do anything like this to yourself, your partner, your child, your worst enemy, or the president of the United States? Well, that is what I was asking myself when I learned about optogenetics a few days ago.

2. Background

Optogenetics is a technique made up of two parts: first a virus or another vector is inserted into a specific area of the brain and inserts itself into some of the neurons there.  The virus encodes a protein that responds to light by generating an electrical impulse.  The second step is to place a fiberoptic laser beam into that small region of the brain.  Then these altered photosensitive neurons can be turned on and off with laser light.  

Since there are more than 10,000 distinct types of neurons in the brain, the belief is that one day specific circuits, controlling specific and context-dependent behaviour and emotion, can be targeted with highly tailored, perhaps even personally tailored drugs, so it won't be necessary to insert an fiberoptic cord in a person's head -- just give them a pill designed for them -- not necessarily for what they want, but also, possibly, for what someone wants of them.  

Indeed the number of people who are forcibly medicated in the US is, by a rough estimate in the range of one million or more each year. More laws diminishing individual liberty, by forcibly medicating a broader class of citizens, are coming on the books.

That "Hacking the Soul" emanates from MIT is fitting for a place where early hackers congregated.  They were forerunners not only of a movement, but of the NSA and the global industry in cyber attack and cyber security.  In, 1963 D. Williams at MIT hacked into password files of a Multics CTSS running on an IBM 7094. Hacking now takes the logical next step -- from computers to brains --  hence to minds, and then to souls -- if you believe in them.

3. What's Next?

The following parts of "Hacking the Mind" delve further into the points raised in this special issue of Technology Review, including evil and free will. I also address broad implications for society should this technology come to fruition including:

•   Criminal behaviour and the justice system
•   Mental illness, particularly personality disorders 
•   children
•   philosophy, ethics and individual liberty
•   you, the reader

Join in with your comments, criticisms, tips... for this new blog.


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[1] For a different and skeptical point of view see "Why “Optogenetic” Methods for Manipulating Brains Don’t Light Me Up" by John Horgan in Scientific American.

[2] Hippocrates did not know about the 2nd brain in the gut, which influences mood and emotion.  With about 100,000,000 neurons, our 2nd brain is about the same size as a dog's, but only 1/1000th the size of our primary one.