Method and system for direct communication

1. A method for communicating information to a recipient, said method comprising:

translating the information into a series of energy pulses for transmission to one or more target regions of a brain of the recipient; and

directing the series of energy pulses to the one or more target regions to produce a cognitive effect which the recipient perceives as the information.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the target region and cognitive effect are selected from the group consisting of:

Cognitive effect

Target region

Perception of touch

Somatosensory cortex

Auditory perception

Auditory cortex

Vestibular perception

Temporal-parietal junction, central sulcus,

intraparietal sulcus, and insular cortex

Visual perception

Primary and extrastriate visual cortex

Olfactory perception

Piriform cortex

Language comprehension

Wernicke's area

Language production

Broca's area

Long-term memory

Hippocampus and parahippocampal

formation (and connected portions of cortex,

e.g. entorhinal cortex and perirhinal cortex)

Modulation of pain

Rostral anterior cingulate cortex

processing

Emotion

Limbic system (e.g. amygdala)

Motor control and

Primary and supplementary motor cortex;

movements

thalamus; cerebellum; basal ganglia;

substantia nigra

Attention

Gamma rhythms

Relaxation

Alpha rhythms

Empathy, social

Brainstem nuclei, hypothalamus, amygdala,

interaction

anterior cingulated cortex, prefrontal cortex,

ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and other

brain regions involved in oxytocin and

arginine vasopressin function

Mirth and laughter

Inferior temporal gyrus, cingulated gyrus,

subthalamic nucleus

Fear

Amygdala, insular cortex, internal capsule,

nucleus accumbens, and anterior temporal

gyrus

Physiological arousal,

Various brainstem nuclei

sleep state

Modulation of risk taking

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein modulating comprises at least one of:

controlling a duration of the cognitive effect which is perceived by the recipient;

generating a series of off and on pulses of the cognitive effect which is perceived as a code by the recipient;

directing energy to different target regions to produce a perceptible pattern of different cognitive effects; and

controlling intensities of the cognitive effects in the perceptible pattern.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein energy of the series of energy pulses comprises acoustic energy having a frequency in a range between 100 kHz and 10 MHz.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein energy of the series of energy pulses comprises acoustic energy having a spatial-peak, temporal-average intensity in brain tissue in a range from 0.0001 mW/cm 2 to 1 W/cm 2 .

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the spatial-peak, temporal-average intensity in brain tissue is modulated to encode the information.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein energy of the series of energy pulses includes acoustic energy and wherein heating of the brain tissue caused by said directing at the target location is no more than 2 degrees Celsius for no more than 5 seconds.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein a length of a pulse from said series is in a range between 0.5 microsecond and 5 seconds.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the pulse length is modulated.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein a pulse repetition frequency is in a range between 50 Hz and 25 kHz.

11. The method of claim 1 , whereby a communication protocol specifies one or more of a frequency, duration, intensity, pulse repetition frequency, number of cycles, and duty cycle of the series of energy pulses.

12. The method of claim 1 , whereby an instruction, message, emotion, feeling, experience, or alteration in cognitive state is delivered to the recipient by one or more methods for brain stimulation chosen from bioTU, transcranial magnetic stimulation, deep brain stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation, transcranial alternating current stimulation, transcranial electric stimulation, one electrode or an array of electrodes implanted on the surface of the brain or dura, and light activation of specially engineered proteins for neuromodulation including optogenetics.

13. A method for communicating information to a recipient, said method comprising:

with an automatically-operating measurement system, performing a measurement of at least one of (i) a non-neuronal activity of an individual and (ii) a neuronal activity of an individual to produce a computer-readable output;

decoding said output to determine the information representing a biological state of the individual;

translating the information into a series of energy pulses for transmission to one or more target regions of a brain of a recipient; and

directing the series of energy pulses to the one or more target regions to produce a cognitive effect which the individual perceives as the information.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the individual and the recipient are different persons, and wherein the directing includes producing said cognitive effect to share an experience of the individual with the recipient.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein said directing includes directing the series of energy pulses through a cranium of the recipient.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein said performing the measurement of the non-neuronal activity includes performing the measurement of at least one of an electromyogram, a galvanic skin response, a heart rate, a blood pressure, a respiration rate, a pupil dilation, an eye movement, and a direction of gaze of the individual.

17. The method according to claim 13 , wherein said performing the measurement includes performing the measurement to produce a computer-readable output representing a parameter that describes at least one of a cognitive state, a sleep state, and a physiological state, including at least one of arousal and attention, thought, sensory perception, and emotion of the individual.

18. The method according to claim 17 , wherein said performing the measurement is carried out until a value of said parameter is determined to be outside of a pre-determined range of values.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein said performing the measurement of the neuronal activity includes performing the measurement with the automatically-operating measurement system that includes at least one of an electroencephalography system, a magnetoencephalography system, a functional magnetic resonance imaging system, a functional near-infrared spectroscopy system, a positron emission tomography system, a single-photon emission computed tomography system, a computed tomography system, and a functional tissue pulsatility imaging system.

20. The method of claim 13 , further comprising

determining a brain stimulation protocol based on the cognitive effect to modulate at least one of a non-neuronal activity of the recipient and a neuronal activity of the recipient.

21. The method of claim 20 , further comprising changing at least one of attention, sense of touch, and another perception characteristic of the recipient as a result of said directing the series of pulses configured according to said brain stimulation protocol.