It seems to me there was no breakthrough just expensive publicity trick. What they did in fact was:
1. The "transmitting person enter a code to a computer using his brain rather the hands.
2. The computer sends a simple binary signal to the receiver brain by zapping two different brain parts to represent 0 and 1.
3. The receiver then "decodes" the message by writing down the binary and figuring out what the word was.
Part 1. has been done before even a more complicated task, for example a monkey was taught how to operate a bionic arm hooked into his brain.
Part 2. Must have been done before as well. Mind you all the "receiver" does is distinguish between two different signals to two parts of his brain. He doesn't comprehend the thought being transmitted to him but merely receives a binary signal which he can then write down and interpret. Therefore, it is not telepathy and not a breakthrough in brain to brain communication.