Suntai Asserts Control, Addresses Taraba State

Suntai Asserts Control, Addresses Taraba State

29 Aug 2013       

Governor Danbaba Suntai

• Dissolves cabinet, sacks SSG, aides  

• Governor, lawmakers meet

Wole Ayodele in Jalingo

Amid the raging political crisis in Taraba State, the recuperating governor, Mr. Danbaba Suntai, moved yesterday to assert his authority on the state by dissolving the State Executive Council (SEC) and addressing the state in a televised broadcast.

Besides the sack of the commissioners, the governor, whose letter to the state House of Assembly that he had returned from medical treatment abroad and was fit to discharge the responsibilities of his office has caused a division among the leadership of the legislature, also relieved the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and his Chief of Staff of their appointments.

He named Mr. Gebon Timothy Kataps as the new SSG and Mallam Aminu Jika as the Chief of Staff, saying their appointments take immediate effect.

Prior to his current appointment, Kataps was the former state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice.
Also, all special advisers were sacked in the unfolding dispensation announced yesterday, aimed at consolidating Suntai’s hold on power.
The governor returned to a tumultuous welcome in Jalingo on Sunday after spending 10 months in health facilities in Germany and the United States where he had undergone treatment for injuries he sustained in a plane crash in Yola, in October 2012.

On arrival, he looked frail and was assisted by aides to disembark from the chartered aircraft that brought him from New York, the United States, to Abuja from where he left on another chartered flight for Jalingo.

In both Abuja and Jalingo, Suntai was prevented from addressing the crowd, thus raising suspicions about his fitness.
He has been in seclusion in the Government House since then while access to him has been restricted to a coterie of friends and family members.

Suntai’s deputy, Alhaji Garba Umar, who held sway during the governor’s absence, intervened to douse tensions yesterday with a call on all stakeholders to maintain calm, just as he rallied support for his principal.

In another intervention, Lagos-based human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has demanded the setting up of a medical panel, in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution to ascertain the state of health of the governor.

The dissolution of the state executive council and the removal of other political appointees were announced yesterday by the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor, Chief Sylvanus Giwa, who told reporters that all special advisers were affected in the sweeping gale.

The governor thanked the commissioners for their contributions to the development of the state and directed that they should hand over to the permanent secretaries of their various ministries.

Suntai, at a brief ceremony later in the day, swore in Kataps after which he thanked the people of the state for their support.
In a video clip of the ceremony shown to journalists, the governor, his words slurred, read a prepared text in which he urged the people to continue to pray for him and the unity of the state.

Also, in a state broadcast shown on Taraba television, the governor thanked the people of the state for their patience, love and fate in him during his absence.

He also congratulated the people on the 22nd anniversary of the state and assured them of his commitment to govern the state and deliver on his promises to the people.

Members of the state assembly later visited the governor and as at 9pm yesterday, they were still locked in a meeting behind closed doors with Suntai.

Similarly, Umar, in a statement by his press secretary, Mr. Kefas Sule, appealed to the people to remain calm and go about their lawful duties as stakeholders continue the search for peaceful ways of resolving the crisis in the state.

He called for support for the governor, adding that there is only one government in the state headed by Suntai and as such every effort would be made to preserve the peace and unity of the state.

But in a letter dated August 27, 2013 to the state assembly Speaker, Hon. Haruna Tsokwa, a copy of which was given to THISDAY, Falana demanded the constitution of a medical panel to determine the mental and physical fitness of the governor.

The letter titled: ‘Request for the constitution of a medical panel to authenticate the mental and physical fitness of Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State,’ read: “Following the involvement of Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State in a plane crash in Yola on the 25th of October, 2012, His Excellency arrived Nigeria on the 25th day of August, 2013 having undergone 10 months of treatment in Germany and the United States of America.

“Barely a day after his return, a letter was delivered to the Taraba State House of Assembly purportedly written by the governor declaring his fitness and intention to resume office immediately.

“In the letter written by the governor to the state House of Assembly, he claimed to have fully recovered from the injuries he sustained in the plane crash of 25th October, 2012 without affording the public a copy of his medical report of mental and physical fitness.

“Having confirmed that there is a medical report, we hereby request for the information on the medical state of the governor which should be made public in the interest of the people of Taraba State and Nigeria as a whole.

“Please take notice in the event that our demand is not acceded to within three days inclusive of the day of receipt of this letter, we shall not hesitate to approach the law court to mandate the leadership of the House to carry out its constitutional duty.”

Falana further observed that since Suntai was brought back to the country “by a cabal of political mongers in Taraba State, he has been held incommunicado by those who have held him hostage.

“All efforts by the acting governor, speaker of the state assembly, Director of State Security Service and Commissioner of Police of Taraba State to meet with the governor have been turned down by his captors due to the fact that he is not in a mental position to recognise anyone.
“The popular demand of the people of Taraba State that the Governor should address them has also been ignored by the cabal.”
On the letter said to have been transmitted by Suntai to the state assembly informing them of his return, Falana said: “Out of the 24 members of the House only seven have claimed that the letter was written by the governor. Others members are convinced that it is forgery in every material particular.

“Today, the political joke was carried to a ridiculous extent when the state cabinet was purportedly dissolved. The governor who is alleged to have resumed duty and taken the decision has not been able to report in his office.

“In the circumstances, the members of the Taraba State Executive Council should remain on their duty posts and insist on an urgent meeting with the governor with a view to confirming if he had actually taken the decision to sack them.

“On its own part, the House should not screen and confirm the list of commissioners being prepared by the cabal to replace the ‘sacked’ cabinet members.”

Falana reminded the captors of the governor that Section 1(2) of the constitution  stipulates that no person or group of persons can take over the country or any part of it except in accordance with the provisions of the said constitution.

Terming what was happening in Taraba a coup d’etat, he called on the federal government to direct the security forces to round up the coup plotters who are currently ruling Taraba State by usurping the constitutional powers of the elected governor.

“Having regard to the experience of acting President Goodluck Jonathan (as he then was) under the cabal that illegally ruled the country when the late President Umar Yar’Adua was in a state of coma, the federal government should not hesitate to defend and protect the constitution in Taraba State in the interest of law and order in the country.

“All men and women of goodwill in the country should team up with the democratic forces in Taraba State to end the brazen impunity of those who are exploiting the health of Governor Suntai to achieve dubious political objectives.

“The governor should be freed to return to the hospital for further treatment without any further delay,” Falana charged.

 

LINK: http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/suntai-asserts-control-addresses-taraba-state/157565/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

SOURCE: THISDAYLIVE

 

Taraba Govt crisis deepens

 August 28, 2013

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North, Abdulwahab B ABDULAH & John Mkom
ABUJA— The political crisis rocking Taraba State deepened, yesterday, with the dissolution of the state executive council by the Governor, Danbaba Suntai.
Apart from sacking the cabinet, Suntai also removed the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, and appointed Mr. Timothy Gibon Kataps in his place. Similarly, Suntai fired his former Chief of Staff, CoS, and named Alhaji Aminu Jika as his new CoS.
The governor, who made the sweeping changes through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Sylvanus Giwa, asked all the affected commissioners and officials to hand over to their respective permanent secretaries with immediate effect.
Although Suntai explained that the move was aimed at strengthening the administration, analysts believe the recuperating governor wants to take greater control of his government, which has been in the hands of those he does not trust, for about a year.

The ailing Governor of Taraba State, Dambaba Suntai arriving Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport Abuja on Sunday. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.

The undercurrent has exposed the divided loyalty between those in support of Suntai, who returned to the country on Sunday, and his deputy, Garba Umar, who has been acting in his absence in the last 10 months.
While the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mr. Haruna Tsokwa asked the governor to come and address the Housew of Assembly at plenary as a condition for resuming, the Majority Leader, Mr. Joseph Albasu Kunini, asked the governor to start work with immediate effect.
Angered by the controversy generated by the governor’s resumption letter, the Attorney General of the state, Timothy Gibon Kataps, said Suntai had resumed work since August 26, 2013, a day after he was flown into the state from the United States.
Kataps, who was later in the day named as the new SSG by Suntai, said that there was no need for the lawmakers to debate the letter submitted by the governor just as he was not expected to address them on his intention to resume work.
Kataps said he had to cut short his trip to Calabar, the Cross River State capital, where he was attending the Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, to clear the air on the matter so that the state was not thrown into avoidable crisis.
The new SSG asked the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr. Haruna Tsokwa, not to heat up the polity by insisting that the governor should address members of the House as a prelude to resuming work. He argued that asking the governor to appear before the members or the members debating the letter sent to them would amount to over-reaching the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution.

Suntai holds secret meeting with lawmakers

Meanwhile, Governor Suntai yesterday held a marathon meeting with the leadership and members of the state House of  Assembly in a desperate move to break the deadlock over his resumption of duties.
The first leg of the meeting, which started at about 4pm lasted till 7:30pm before the Speaker sent an aide to inform anxious journalists that there was nothing to report to them, as they were continuing late into the night.
Sources at the meeting hinted that the governor was trying to appease the lawmakers to accept his resumption letter in good faith and allow him resume work without passing through the rigours of addressing them.
The governor is said to have also used the enlarged meeting to explain the rationale behind the dissolution of the state executive council, yesterday, and pleaded with them to support him in approving the list of new ones to be sent to them.
The meeting became necessary following the sharp disagreement between lawmakers loyal to the recuperating governor and his deputy.
Many of the lawmakers led by the Speaker, Mr. Haruna Tsokwa, who is backing the Deputy Governor to continue acting, are opposed to the resumption of work by Suntai until he addresses them.
On the other hand, the Majority Leader of the House of Assembly, Mr. Albasu Kunini, who leads a faction of the lawmakers, insists the governor had since resumed duties with his submission of letter of fitness to them.
His position was re-echoed by the Attorney General of the State, Timothy Gibon Kataps, who said that the law did not require the governor to address the House before resuming work.
It was unclear at press time if the two sides would agree on a common position as those loyal to the acting governor were said to be upset that the recuperating governor has not treated the acting governor fairly since his return on Sunday.
Suntai’s handlers were said to have prevented Umar from seeing him and discussing any state matters with him.
Although many thought Suntai was unaware of his environment, he is reported to have spoken for the first time, yesterday.
Suntai is said to have spoken while inaugurating the new Secretary to the State Government, Timothy Gibon Kataps, who was until yesterday, the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice.
The governor reportedly advised the new appointee to place the interest of the state above all other considerations.

Sack of state executive illegal—Falana

Meantime, Lagos Lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, yesterday argued that the sack of the executive council by Governor Suntai was illegal, since he was yet to resume office officially after his return.
In a statement issued yesterday, Falana contended that the failure of the governor to report in office for work has rendered his action invalid as well as validating the power of the deputy governor as the acting governor of the state.
To this end, he urged members of the state executive council purportedly sacked to remain in their duty posts, until they are able to meet with the governor.
Falana who expressed fears that the sack may be the handiwork of those he called “governor’s captors”, said something urgent should be done not to plunge the state into political crisis before it is late.
He said: “In the circumstance, the members of the Taraba State Executive Council should remain on their duty posts and insist on an urgent meeting with the governor with a view to confirming if he had actually taken the decision to sack them.
“On its own part, the House should not screen and confirm the list of commissioners being prepared by the cabal to replace the ‘sacked’ cabinet members.”
He argued that since the return of the governor to the country five days ago, “he has been held incommunicado by those who have held him hostage. All efforts by the Acting Governor, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, the Director, Department of State Service,DSS, and Commissioner of Police of Taraba State to meet with the Governor have been turned down by his captors due to the fact that he is not in a mental position to recognise anyone. The popular demand of the people of Taraba State that the Governor should address them has also been ignored by the cabal,” he added.
Calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to rise to the occasion, Falana warned: “However, before the State is plunged into further political crisis the attention of the captors of the ailing Governor ought to be drawn to Section 1(2) of the Constitution which stipulates that no person or group of persons can take over the country or any part of it except in accordance with the provisions of the said Constitution. “The Federal Government should therefore direct the security forces to round up the coup plotters who are currently ruling Taraba state by usurping the constitutional powers of the elected Governor.”
He said that the Federal Government should not hesitate to defend and protect the Constitution in Taraba state in the interest of law and order in the country.

LINK:http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/taraba-govt-crisis-deepens/

SOURCE: VANGAURD

Media portrayal and public perception of mental health

August 29, 2013 by Adeoye Oyewole (adeoyewole2000@yahoo.com)

Adeoye Oyewole
| credits: File copy

The society is made up of people who evolve rules and practices to conduct their affairs over time. These practices are all subsumed under the umbrella of culture which, according to Taylor, is defined as a total way of life of the people. This way of life include the things we believe naturally without verification.

The central element, therefore, of any culture, is the value which prescribes the behavioral attitude of the people. Practices are naturally born from the traditional legal institutions of the society, which may take the form of bureaucracy or discourses when it assumes an intellectual status.

The media, in this context, is a traditional legal institution that functions as a vehicle of values in the public discourse of mental health issues. The media constitutes a collection which includes not merely television and radio, but the cinema, advertising, newspapers, magazines and pamphlets.

The word ‘stigma’ derives from the Greek word that refers to bodily signs designed to expose something unusual and bad about the moral status of the signifier. Such signs were either ‘cut’ or ‘burnt’ into the body and advertised that the bearer was a slave, a criminal or a traitor; someone to be avoided, especially in the public.

The sociologist, Erving Goffman, in a classic book on stigma, points out that the person with a stigma is more often defined as somehow less than human; and to justify the stigmatisation, human beings tend to construct a theory or ideology as a basis of explanation.

The stigmatisation theory, most times, rests on the theories of moral weakness, dangerousness, contamination and culpability. Most of us acquire our stereotypes of mental illness during childhood; and while much of the imagery involved is spurious, such expectations and stereotypes are continually reaffirmed and reinforced in ordinary social interactions.

Much of the language of mental health has been absorbed into the public discourse in  a manner that is explicitly stigmatising with the use of such terms as ‘psycho,’ ‘nutter,’ ‘maniac,’  ‘schizo,’ and ‘kolo’ to demean and denigrate the entire field of mental health.

The political abuse of psychiatry has given psychiatrists cause to be alert to the professional danger of being misused as agents of social control and contributors to the process of stigmatisation of the mentally ill.

Some researchers have taken a conservative stance as it relates to the social order; and some have argued that greater recognition be paid to the social and cultural assumptions on which much of psychiatry theory and practice are based, which is capable of contributing to subtle stigmatisation of the mentally ill within the mental health services.

A good number of our teachers insist that psychiatric units in our teaching hospitals should be located among other wards, rather than somewhere in the backyard with minimal use of bars and iron gates.

A substantial part of the history of psychiatry has been that of confinement and our images of madness derived from that history, which powerfully reinforces the notion of mental illness as a state of incipient danger.

The word ‘bedlam’ connotes, among other things, “a place of uproar” which derives from one of the earliest psychiatric institutions, Bethlem Royal Hospital, London. The growth of the mental hospital was a spectacular phenomenon of the 19th century which did little to reduce the fear and the ignorance surrounding the mentally ill.

The mental hospitals retained much of the aura of abuse, neglect, and cruelty which surrounded the mad houses of earlier years. This may possibly be the drawbacks in the setting up of our ‘stand-alone’ psychiatric hospitals in Nigeria that have acquired popular stigmatising names such as Aro, Yaba apa-osi and others.

The decline in the establishment of stand-alone psychiatric hospitals and simultaneous development of the psychiatric units in the settings of the teaching hospitals, with  the rise of community psychiatry practice, hopes have risen that the stigmatisation of the mentally ill might be eventually eliminated.

However, this strategy requires education of the general public and greater involvement of the mass media in positive portrayal of mental health issues. Since the cardinal contributory factors to stigmatisation are ignorance, fear and hostility, then the antidotes will naturally be information, reassurance, and a vigorous anti discriminatory campaign. This cannot be achieved without the involvement of the media.

Experience in the developed countries has shown that journalists and broadcasters need to be persuaded that inaccurate reporting, stereotyped portrayals and sensational use of discriminatory language and labels are no longer acceptable.

On this note, due appreciation should be accorded The PUNCH as a leading media organisation in health advocacy in Nigeria, through the daily Healthwise pages.

In the same vein, Nollywood producers need to appreciate their crucial role in modifying the attitude of the people as they produce home videos that can portray the mentally ill in a positive light, as our parochial values concerning them are critically interrogated.

 

LINK: http://www.punchng.com/healthwise/media-portrayal-and-public-perception-of-mental-health/

 

SOURCE: PUNCH

Nigerian-born Gambian judge is being persecuted – Family

on August 29, 2013

 

By ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH
Family of the Nigerian-born former Chief Justice, CJ, of The Gambia, Justice Joseph Wowo, accused of requesting bribe over a land issue, has said the judge was being persecuted on account of his nationality.
In a document made available to Vanguard in Lagos by his elder brother, Godwin Wowo, he claimed that the bribe story was a “bunch of falsehood” orchestrated by powerful forces in The Gambia, who did not want a foreigner to be appointed CJ of their country.
Godwin claimed that his younger brother’s problems started when he was invited by The Gambia’s former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Lamin Jobarteh, to help settle a dispute.
The dispute concerns a land matter in which Justice Wowo, as a High Court Judge, had delivered a judgment in favour of a German, Bernd Dietrich, against 12 trespassers, including one Andre Sape Van Klaabergen, who was the former Minister’s client before his appointment as Attorney-General.
According to Godwin’s account, the said meeting was attended by parties to the land suit, who were also accompanied by their lawyers.
He said that the ex-Attorney-General had offered to pay D500,000 as compensation to the German on behalf of his client.
He said the German, through his counsel, Mr. Christopher Mene,refused, maintaining that he wants nothing less than D1.5 million for the land.
He said that his brother could have demanded bribe at the meeting that held at the former minister’s house before over 12 people, saying a judgment of the court had been delivered on the issue.

LINK: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/nigerian-born-gambian-judge-is-being-persecuted-family/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

SOURCE: VANGAURD

Benefits of eating bananas

August 29, 2013

If you think bananas are just for monkeys, think again.

• Bananas help overcome depression due high levels of tryptophan, which is converted into serotonin — the happy-mood brain  neurotransmitter

• Eat two bananas before a strenuous workout to pack an energy punch and sustain your blood sugar

• Protect against muscle cramps during workouts and night time leg cramps by eating a banana

• Counteract calcium loss during urination and build strong bones by supplementing with a banana

• Improve your mood and reduce PMS symptoms by eating a banana, which regulates blood sugar and produces stress-relieving relaxation

• Bananas reduce swelling, protect against type II diabetes, aid weight              loss, strengthen the nervous system, and help with the production of white blood cells, all due to high levels of vitamin B-6

• Strengthen your blood and relieve anemia with the added iron from bananas

 

LINK: http://www.punchng.com/healthwise/benefits-of-eating-bananas/

 

SOURCE: PUNCH

When a teacher cannot read

 August 29, 2013    

 

 

By Josef Omorotiomwan
EVIDENTLY, we are not listening enough to Albert Einstein (1879-1955): “Life is like a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving”. We keep increasing the level of rationalisation in our society, in the process of which we get fixated at offering excuses for our failure.
At the mention of the poor performance of our children in English Language tests, we quickly point at the direction of the Short Massage Service, SMS, as a major distraction, whereas the SMS has always been with us. In the past, they were called telegrams and we used them quite often. The fact that a student sent a telegram home, “CONDITION CRITICAL X SEND MONEY” did not prevent him from writing the best letter in his English language class the following day.

Oshiomhole and one of the state’s teacher

The Holy Books make it clear that there is nobody that God did not endow with particular talents. The only difference is that while some discover their God-given talents early enough; those who do not discover theirs force themselves into areas where they do not belong.
That teacher who could not read her own affidavit of age declaration could as well have been a huge success in some aspects of merchandising.
Elsewhere, assisting people to discover their talents is a major function of the education system, starting from very early in life.
We all make mistakes sometimes. In an unplanned society like ours, luck plays a role in straightening us out. I have sometimes strayed into areas where I did not belong but I did not wait to be disgraced out. In our secondary school days, I once found myself in a dance club but I quickly bounced out after cutting some shoes of my dance partners. I was clumsy. In fact, I had two left legs. But by the time I moved into the literary and debating society, I became the one to beat.
That was how I found myself in a tennis club. I quickly got out when it became clear that the only direction I could play was aiming at the sky.
Rather than mitigate the problem, society helps to aggravate it. You can imagine if I had forced myself into becoming the one to teach our young ones to dance or better still, if I had bought my way into becoming the one to prepare our tennis players for the next Olympics. That would be a total disaster and that’s exactly what we are doing to ourselves and our nation in virtually every field.
We are largely a bunch of sadists, even to ourselves. We entertain ourselves with ludicrous events, the amount of venom we release into society, notwithstanding. In this Edo State, we once had a Commissioner who couldn’t spell “Commissioner”. For her, the word must shed weight by force and the only way to do so was to eliminate the double letters and she came up with “Comisioner” as her own version of the word.
We were pleasantly entertained on television but that did not prevent her from being picked as a Commissioner, even where some Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN, and other seemingly more qualified nominees had to be screened out to make way for her. In other climes, some citizen action groups would have stopped that appointment! You can imagine what type of Commissioner we had in “Mrs Comisioner”.
Let no one be deceived. That teacher who could not read is not alone in that category. They are many. Whereas our system is still relatively able to sift the “Commissioners” from the “Comisioners”; and whereas the teachers who can read and those who cannot are not in short supply here, the differentiation should be made by sound personnel practice at that point of recruitment. But where is that entry point?
When a chief executive wants to engage any particular person, even a stubborn legislature can hardly stop him. For example, Prof. Borisade Babalola holds the clear record of being tossed between the Executive and the Legislature close to five times before his nomination was finally confirmed. Again, the initial rejections of that ebullient Professor were not because he was found wanting but the murky politics of Ondo State had an axe to grind with him.
Our Education Boards have always paraded some of the best and most experienced brains. But while a Board may spend its entire tenure without officially appointing a single teacher, letters of appointment of teachers are “hawked” progressively at the market place, under the candle light, with perhaps some insider collaboration. Between Boards, such illicit appointments get regularised.
True, Rome was not built in a day. We have now arrived at that dangerous point where there are teachers who cannot read and these are the people in whose hands the fate of our future leaders lies. These people did not suddenly find themselves unable to read.
Once blocking starts, it never ends. They even block their way through the PhD. Sadly, the loudest critics of any system are to be found in this category. But luckily, too, even where the thief has every day, the owner still has his single day.
That woman also got her share of infamy: had she fallen into a pit toilet, a sachet of N20 detergent would have cleaned her up; had she been diagnosed for some serious ailment, by now she would have been completing her medication; but in split seconds, her inability to read had incurably destroyed her for life, particularly when she involuntarily relinquished her “Ekiadolor papers” to Oshiomhole – “Who is now the teacher?” “You are the one, Sir”.
Shall we return to Tai Solarin who once opined that the only way to sanitise Lagos was to bomb down the entire place and begin to rearrange it? More than four decades after, Solarin is still waiting to happen, but it has taken some extra-radical steps to begin to turn Lagos around. Essentially, Nigeria is still possible. Just pray and hope!

LINK: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/when-a-teacher-cannot-read/

SOURCE: VANGAURD

Researchers perform first human brain-to-brain interface

August 29, 2013

University of Washington researchers have performed what they believe is the first non-invasive human-to-human brain interface, with one researcher able to send a brain signal via the Internet to control the hand motions of a fellow researcher.

Using electrical brain recordings and a form of magnetic stimulation, Rajesh Rao sent a brain signal to Andrea Stocco on the other side of the UW campus, causing Stocco’s finger to move on a keyboard.

While researchers at Duke University have demonstrated brain-to-brain communication between two rats, and Harvard researchers have demonstrated it between a human and a rat, Rao and Stocco believe this is the first demonstration of human-to-human brain interfacing.

“The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains,” Stocco said. “We want to take the knowledge of a brain and transmit it directly from brain to brain.”

The researchers captured the full demonstration on video recorded in both labs. The version available at the end of this story has been edited for length.

Rao, a UW professor of computer science and engineering, has been working on brain-computer interfacing in his lab for more than 10 years and just published a textbook on the subject. In 2011, spurred by the rapid advances in BCI technology, he believed he could demonstrate the concept of human brain-to-brain interfacing. So he partnered with Stocco, a UW research assistant professor in psychology at the UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences.

On Aug. 12, Rao sat in his lab wearing a cap with electrodes hooked up to an electroencephalography machine, which reads electrical activity in the brain. Stocco was in his lab across campus wearing a purple swim cap marked with the stimulation site for the transcranial magnetic stimulation coil that was placed directly over his left motor cortex, which controls hand movement.

The team had a Skype connection set up so the two labs could coordinate, though neither Rao nor Stocco could see the Skype screens.

Rao looked at a computer screen and played a simple video game with his mind. When he was supposed to fire a cannon at a target, he imagined moving his right hand (being careful not to actually move his hand), causing a cursor to hit the “fire” button. Almost instantaneously, Stocco, who wore noise-canceling earbuds and wasn’t looking at a computer screen, involuntarily moved his right index finger to push the space bar on the keyboard in front of him, as if firing the cannon. Stocco compared the feeling of his hand moving involuntarily to that of a nervous tic.

“It was both exciting and eerie to watch an imagined action from my brain get translated into actual action by another brain,” Rao said. “This was basically a one-way flow of information from my brain to his. The next step is having a more equitable two-way conversation directly between the two brains.”

The technologies used by the researchers for recording and stimulating the brain are both well-known. Electroencephalography, or EEG, is routinely used by clinicians and researchers to record brain activity noninvasively from the scalp. Transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, is a non-invasive way of delivering stimulation to the brain to elicit a response. Its effect depends on where the coil is placed; in this case, it was placed directly over the brain region that controls a person’s right hand. By activating these neurons, the stimulation convinced the brain that it needed to move the right hand.

Computer science and engineering undergraduates Matthew Bryan, Bryan Djunaedi, Joseph Wu and Alex Dadgar, along with bioengineering graduate student Dev Sarma, wrote the computer code for the project, translating Rao’s brain signals into a command for Stocco’s brain.

 

Linkhttp://www.punchng.com/healthwise/researchers-perform-first-human-brain-to-brain-interface/

 

Source: PUNCH