At a presentation of the Neuralink implant, which Elon Musk hopes will one day connect the human brain to a computer, two monkeys were reported to move computer cursors with their brains.
The feat was first documented by others in a human in 2006, in the previous era Youtube and with much more cumbersome technology, tying patients to
Musk’s presentation Wednesday night offered little significant news from previous demos of the device.
He went on to say that the facility could allow people with disabilities to control a computer. paralysis outside of a laboratory setting.
But industry insiders questioned whether the demo showed any significant progress with the device, especially given the breadth of work being done across the country.
“These are incremental advances,” said Daniel Yoshor, a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine who has worked with similar devices, after seeing the presentation.
“The hardware is impressive, but it doesn’t represent a spectacular advance in restoring or improving brain function.”
Neuralink does not have Food and Drug Administration approval to sell the device.
Musk said Wednesday that the company has submitted most of its filings to the agency asking for permission to implant its device into a human.
He predicted a human trial in six months, but any move toward human trials will be up to the FDA after a full evaluation of the risks surgical implantation and device safety.
Neuralink originally scheduled the event for late October, before billionaire Musk postponed the presentation in the midst of one of the busiest months of his career.
You recently completed the intermittent purchase of Chirpingwhich drew much of their attention – and generated considerable controversy – to the running of the social media company.
While Musk juggles this and other tasks, he also oversees the electric car maker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX-, Neuralink is coming out of a period of change.
Last year, Max Hodak, the company’s president and one of its co-founders, set off to launch his own company in the industry.
Neuralink’s CEO is officially Jared Birchall, an asset manager who runs Musk’s family office.
Wednesday night’s presentation focused on the “Link” device, which looks like a battery several inches wide with hundreds of thin wires.
A surgical robot would punch a hole in the skull and run electrode wires through the brain’s gray matter, according to a 2020 presentation from Musk’s company.
The coin-like piece would be placed flush with the skull.
Leaders in the field of brain-computer interface technology have been closely watching Neuralink’s investment in a device that would work without any protruding wires or hardware.
However, Musk’s presentations so far have worried and disappointed many of them.
A 2021 Neuralink presentation in which a monkey played the video game Pong with its mind was similar to a primate demonstration done at Brown University in 2001, albeit with a much cruder system.
In a 2020 presentation showing a pig with the implant, Musk hinted that the device could do it “solveconditions such as paralysis and insomnia, and could even give a user “superhuman vision”.
Such apps sound like Science fiction for scientists who focus solely on restoring basic functions, such as typing, speaking or picking up a fork, to those who have lost them after a spinal cord injury or a serious diagnosis.
For these patients, the benefits outweigh the small but serious risk of brain surgery.
“Nobody’s talking about implanting healthy people,” says Cindy Chestek, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan, whose lab works on restoring function in amputees.
On Wednesday night, Musk said his plans for his device included making the blind see and giving someone with a severed spinal cord “whole body functionality.”
The claims drew public acclaim, but do not reflect the state of the camp.
“I wouldn’t say that for sure,” Yoshor said after Musk claimed the Neuralink device would give sight to people who’ve never seen.
“I would have many doubts about this type of device in a patient with congenital blindness“.
Safety will be the FDA’s top concern when it considers whether the device could be tested in humans, said Cristin Welle, an associate professor of neuroscience at the University of Colorado who helped draft the FDA’s guidance on brain implants in computers. before leaving the agency in 2016.
Welle said regulators will focus on whether the device could damage the brain or pose unreasonable risks to patients.
The lifetime of the device will also be considered, as might brain fluids corrode the insulation covering the hundreds of hair-like electrodes on the Link device.
Neuralink tested the device on sheep, pigs and primates, according to documents filed with the Department of Agriculture.
Other companies and scientists have already won FDA approval to study similar devices in humans.
In 2004, researchers conducted human tests with the Utah Matrix, a spiked device about the size of a child’s aspirin that is surgically inserted into the brain.
It connects via a cable to a small head-mounted unit that transmits to a computer.
This neural interface system is called BrainGate.
With the pieces in place, the scientists look for patterns in the electrical current of neurons that signal the brain’s intention to type letters or raise a hand.
The code, in turn, instructs a computer or robot to do the task.
Nearly three dozen patients have been tested with the Utah matrix device.
Thanks to this technology, people with paralysis or other disabilities lifted a cinnamon latte with a robotic arm in 2011, typed text quoting Shakespeare in 2012, and lifted forks of mashed potatoes in 2016.
But the Utah set is not suitable for long-term use.
It emerges from the skull, ties users to a wire connected to a computer, and puts them at risk of brain infection.
For these and other reasons, companies like Neuralink are working to build fully implanted devices.
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Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.