LOS ANGELES, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. company Neural Connections has just carried out the first human transplant of its brain-computer interface device, which has attracted widespread attention. What kind of technology is BCI? What can it do to humanity? What is the progress and prospects of R&D?
Elon Musk, a well-known American entrepreneur, said on the 29th that his brain-computer interface company "Neural Connection" carried out the first human transplant of a brain-computer interface device on the 28th, and the transplant recipient is currently recovering well.
According to Musk, the first brain-computer interface product of the "Neural Connection" company is called "telepathy", and after the brain is implanted in the device, it can control mobile phones, computers and almost all devices through them just by using their minds. People who have lost the function of their limbs will be the first users of this product.
Brain-computer interface is a transformative human-computer interaction technology that works by collecting neural signals from the brain and analyzing them into specific instructions. Normally, the human or animal brain relies on nerves and muscles to output instructions to the external environment, and this technology can create a direct connection between the brain and external devices, and realize the direct exchange of information between the "brain" and the "machine".
The important functions of BCI devices include helping with memory loss, cervical spinal cord injury and other neurological diseases, helping patients with motor dysfunction, paralysis regain some of their abilities, and even helping them walk again, improving and enhancing their quality of life. With the development of brain-computer articulation, its potential application scenarios in the medical and non-medical fields are also expanding, including monitoring and assessing brain status, regulating nerves, enhancing sensory abilities, improving game control, and being used in education, military and other fields.
At present, brain-computer grafting is divided into three categories: non-invasive, invasive, and semi-invasive according to whether it needs to invade the brain and the degree of invasiveness. The company's products are invasive. Musk said preliminary results show good prospects for implanted brain-computer interface devices to detect neuron-related activity.
The potential of brain-computer interface devices is powerful, but the safety of their implantation into the human body has been the subject of controversy and concern. Implantation of electrodes by craniotomy is very risky, and foreign body invasion can also trigger an immune response and the formation of scar tissue, which may also affect the quality of the electrode signal.
For this purpose, the company "Neural Connection" conducted animal experiments. In August 2020, Musk once showed a live broadcast of a piglet whose brain is implanted with a brain-computer interface device, and its brain activity signals can be read in real time. The piglets that were removed after the brain implant were healthy and there was no significant difference compared to the normal piglets. In 2021, it was reported that Neural Connections implanted a microchip into a monkey's brain, allowing it to play video games with its mind.
Since 2019, Musk's "Neural Connection" company will soon be approved to start human clinical trials. But it wasn't until May 2023 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the green light to its human trials. In September of the same year, the company began recruiting participants for its first brain-computer interface clinical trial.
According to Neural Connect, its research project, which is called "Precision Robot Implantation of Brain-Computer Interfaces", is a trial of a fully implantable wireless brain-computer interface medical device to evaluate the safety of implants and surgical robots, as well as to evaluate the initial function of a brain-computer interface to help paralyzed people control external devices with their brains. In this study, the surgical robot is responsible for implanting ultra-fine, flexible wires of the implant into brain regions that control motor intent to record brain signals and transmit them wirelessly to an application that decodes motor intent.
The research aims to help people with special needs, including those who are paralyzed by cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS, by creating universal brain interfaces.
Although brain-computer articulation has made great progress and has a broad imagination space, there are still many obstacles to overcome before the real large-scale commercialization, including not only practical technical bottlenecks, but also ethics, privacy, social fairness and other issues.
According to the United States**, in addition to the "Neural Connection" company, there are also a number of American companies developing brain-computer interface**, and some companies have also carried out human clinical trials.