By Ravi Chandra
Latest advances in the field of neuroscience could be used for defense purposes to make soldiers more lethal on the battlefield.
With the applications of this study, the brains of soldiers could be hooked directly to the weapons systems, and their brains could be scanned during recruitment. Using neural stimulation, their learning could also be boosted with the use of the latest developments in neuroscience.
A new report by the Royal Society, Britain's national academy of science, describes new uses of neuroscience in the military and law enforcement. Published on Wednesday, the report also underscores a score of legal and ethical issues associated with innovations. According to the report, while the advancements made in the field of neuroscience may benefit society and improve treatments for brain disease and mental illness, it may also have some security applications.
Authors of the report suggest the use of this study to manufacture new designer drugs to boost performance, and can be used to make captives talk or put enemy troops to sleep. They also say that hostile applications of the findings are more likely, but scientists are quite oblivious to the dual use of the study.
Rod Flower, chairman of the report's working group, said, "Neuroscience will have more of an impact in the future. People can see a lot of possibilities, but so far very few have made their way through to actual use. All leaps forward start out this way. You have a groundswell of ideas and suddenly you get a step change."
Several widely used neuroscience technologies are on the cusp of being incorporated by the military to improve the training of soldiers, pilots and more. An increasing number of studies suggest that by passing weak electrical signals through the skull and using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) could improve performance in some tasks.
A particular study cited by the report described how US neuroscientists employed it to improve people's ability to spot roadside bombs, snipers and other hidden threats in a virtual reality training program used by US troops bound for the Middle East.
Vince Clark, a neuroscientist and lead author on the study at the University of New Mexico, said, "Those who had tDCS learnt to spot the targets much quicker. Their accuracy increased twice as fast as those who had minimal brain stimulation. I was shocked that the effect was so large."
Clark, whose broader research on the matter could pave the way for radical therapies for dementia, psychiatric disorders and learning difficulties, admits to there being concerns over neuroscience being used by the military.
"As a scientist I dislike that someone might be hurt by my work. I want to reduce suffering, to make the world a better place, but there are people in the world with different intentions, and I don't know how to deal with that," he said. "If I stop my work, the people who might be helped won't be helped. Almost any technology has a defense application."
Although study into the field of tDCS is in its initial stages, but the advancement thus far suggests that it could be used to help people to boost their attention and memory. The Royal Society report says that tDCS, when used with brain imaging systems, "may prove to be the much sought-after tool to enhance learning in a military context."
A scenario mentioned in the report involves the use of devices called brain-machine interfaces to connect people's brains directly to military technology, with the inclusion of drones and other weapons systems. The report says, "Since the human brain can process images, such as targets, much faster than the subject is consciously aware of, a neurally interfaced weapons system could provide significant advantages over other system control methods in terms of speed and accuracy."
Stressed up on in the research are the ethical and legal concerns on the use of brain-machine interfaces (BMI). Flower, a professor of pharmacology at the William Harvey Research Institute at Barts and the London hospital, posed a question, "If you are controlling a drone and you shoot the wrong target or bomb a wedding party, who is responsible for that action? Is it you or the BMI? There's a blurring of the line between individual responsibility and the functioning of the machine. Where do you stop and the machine begin?"
One more technology that may find military use is the EEG (electroencephalogram), where a hairnet of electrodes is used to record brainwaves through the skull. With the use of a system of "neurofeedback," people can learn to control their brainwaves and better their skills. The report notes that EEG has been shown to improve the training of archers and golfers.
Darpa, the U.S. military research organization, has already used EEG in spotting targets in satellite images which could have been missed by the person screening them. However, the use of the technology, sometimes the brain noticed targets but could not make conscious thoughts. The report added that EEG traces were used to select a group of images for closer inspection, and stepped up the detection of target by three times.
Research surrounding brain connectivity has raised the possibility of using scans to select fast learners while recruiting.
A 2011 research performed by Scott Grafton at the University of California, Santa Barbara, focused on functional magnetic resonance imaging scans for measuring the flexibility of brain networks. The study concluded that the flexibility of a person helped predict how quickly would they grow up to a task.
The report said, "Informal assessment occurs routinely throughout the military community. The issue is whether adopting more formal techniques based on the results of research in neuroeconomics, neuropsychology and other neuroscience disciplines confers an advantage in decision making."
