Neuralink

Can people with paralysis use smartphones or other devices? We might wonder about the dumbness of this question, which is actually a relevant one. Because Elon Musk’s Neuralink says it is possible. Recently, the company released a video of a macaque monkey named Pager, playing pink pong with its brain. This became possible by implanting N1 Link, a data transmission device in the motor cortex areas in the monkey’s body. Neuralink enabled them to predict the movements by leveraging machine learning and the predictions were used to control the movement of the joystick in this case. After initially using the joystick, the monkey is seen playing directly with its brain. 

Brain-machine Interface has always been a curious technological element and many movies and fiction have glorified them and sometimes showed it in scary light. BMI has a lot of impacts and uses cases in the future world considering the fast pace of technology growth. Neuralink has understood this scope and need and has been working towards developing technology that can enable a better understanding of the human brain and capture brain activities. According to Neuralink, “Our mission is to build a safe and effective clinical BMI system that is wireless and fully implantable that users can operate by themselves and take anywhere they go; to scale up the number of electrodes for better robustness and higher information throughput; and to automate the implant surgery to make it as rapid and safe as possible’’

Neuralink is sure to open new avenues for people with paralysis since this implant can enable them to express their thoughts, create art, communicate, and use electronic devices like smartphones. Elon Musk in his recent tweet says, “First Neuralink product will enable someone with paralysis to use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone using thumbs and later Later versions will be able to shunt signals from Neuralinks in the brain to Neuralinks in body motor/sensory neuron clusters, thus enabling, for example, paraplegics to walk again.” 

The link is implanted in the brain through micron-scale threads, which contain thousands of electrodes that detect neural signals and activities in the brain and translate the signals into a machine-readable algorithm. Since these threads are really sensitive, the Neuralink team is also developing a robotic system that can insert the threads with utmost precision. Since the technology uses wireless and autonomous implants and can be charged by inductive chargers. 

BMI is a revolutionary technology and can prove very useful to people who have suffered injuries to their neural system and have mobility issues. According to Neuralink, the implant contains 1,024 electrodes, and this increased number of electrodes makes it an efficient and largest BMI that can read the human brain. The company states that they can create a model or decoder by correlating different patterns exhibited by the brain and intended movement direction. This will enable the machine to predict the neural signals and activity. A recent blog by Neuralink explains how the decoding process works and says that they are gradually trying to enable people with paralysis to restore their mobility by using the implant to stimulate movements in the body.