Mysterious New Mind Control Technology Could Manipulate Emotions and Even Appetite Without Any Invasive Surgery

SCIENTISTS have discovered they can use nanoparticles to control the minds of mice in a groundbreaking new study.

Aside from any nefarious sci-fi inspired plans for the technology – which is still in its early stages of development – scientists believe it could be used to treat neurological disorders like depression.

With an external magnetic field, scientists at the Institute of Basic Sciences (IBS) in South Korea discovered that they could manipulate nanoparticle-activated “switches” inside the brains of mice.

The technology, called Nano-MIND (Magnetogenetic Interface for NeuroDynamics), allowed researchers to control the emotions and appetite of rats remotely.

The human brain contains a complex network of more than 100 billion neurons that, if controlled, is crucial to understanding cognition, emotion and social behavior.

Scientists manipulated these neurons by magnetically rotating a tiny actuator to pull or push implanted nanoparticles into the rats’ brains.

What are nanoparticles?

A nanoparticle is a small particle that varies between 1 and 100 nanometers in size.

For context, the thickness of the paper is about 100,000 nanometers.

They are undetectable by the human eye and are even smaller than the wavelengths of visible light, which are between 400 and 700 nanometers.

Therefore, they need to be observed using special electron microscopes or laser microscopes.

Nanoparticles can exhibit significantly different physical and chemical properties than the larger material they help build.

Studies involving nanoparticles are branches of nanotechnology – the technology on which the fictional Marvel character Tony Stark, or Iron Man, is based.

There have been numerous “mind control” experiments on animals over the years.

But this is the first that did not involve invasive surgery and bulky external systems, which allowed the mice freedom of movement.

“This is the world’s first technology to freely control specific regions of the brain using magnetic fields,” Jinwoo Cheon, director of the IBS Center for Nanomedicine, said in a statement.

Cheon, senior author of the study recently published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, added: “We hope it will be widely used in research to understand brain functions, sophisticated artificial neural networks, two-way communications [brain-computer interface] technologies and new treatments for neurological disorders.”

In several rounds of experiments, researchers activated inhibitory neurons in the brain to increase appetite and eating behaviors by 100%.

In turn, the team could curb their appetite.

Scientists also used the Nano-MIND system to activate brain receptors responsible for maternal behaviors in female mice that had not yet reproduced.

These female mice then showed “significantly increased caregiving behaviors, such as bringing offspring to the nest, similar to maternal mice,” according to a press release.

In a third experiment, researchers activated neurons responsible for “friendly” behaviors to encourage mice to socialize with other mice they hadn’t met before in a small chamber.