Last week Elon Musk surprised the world again with a live demo from one of his futuristic startups. This time it’s not about bringing people to Mars, building electric cars or creating an efficient transportation infrastructure. No, Neuralink is trying to connect computers to human brains by designing the first neural implant that allows humans to control a computer or mobile device with their brain.
At the event Elon demonstrated several pigs that had a prototype version of the neural links implanted in their head. On a screen the audience was able to see how the implant reads brain activity allowing for prediction of the movement and positioning of the joints with a high accuracy. Pretty cool right?
How does it work?
A neuron consist of three parts. There is the dendrite that receives a signal, a cell body called a soma which computes the signal and an axon which sends the signal out. In a human brain there are Human over 86 billion neurons sending and receiving information by communicating through electric signals. All these neurons together form a web that is continuously firing away resulting in about 15 million billion bits of information moving around per second. All these bits together carry information about everything we see, feel, touch or think.
Neuralink’s brain machine interface (BMI) system places micron-scale threads near these neurons allowing them to decode information that is communicated by these cells. These threads are so fine that they need to be inserted by a robot that ‘sews’ these threads exactly in the right areas of the brain with micrometre spatial precision. As the implant contains arrays of flexible electrode threads with up to 3072 electrodes per array, distributed across 96 it can gather a lot of detailed information. This direct connection allows for reading brain activity but information but also for the implant to write information back into the brain.
Why is this interesting?
Using this BMI technology Elon aims to improve the lives of a broad range of patients. The short-term goal of Neuralink is to help people with a paralysis interact with the world around them by allowing them to communicate using computers and mobile devices. In the long-term, as the technology improves, it could potentially treat a wide variety of neurological disorders in the fields of sensory and motor disabilities, neurocommunication, BMI control of exoskeletons and cognitive state evaluation.
Personally, I think that potential application of this technology is super interesting, especially for people that are currently paralysed. But, we also have to be careful on how far we want to take this in a world were advanced technology is mostly available to the wealthy and the implications of inserting computer hardware into human brains is still unknown. As George Orwell’s said it best:
“Nothing is your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.”
Maybe we should keep it that way in a world with every increasing connectivity.
References:
http://thephenomenalexperience.com/content/how-fast-is-your-brain#:~:text=Each%20neurons%20fires%20(on%20average,other%20neurons%20get%20that%20information.
Neuralink Progress Update, Summer 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVvmgjBL74w
https://neuralink.com/
https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/8/28/21404802/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-machine-interface-research
Daly JJ, Wolpaw JR. Brain-computer interfaces in neurological rehabilitation. Lancet Neurol 2008 Nov;7(11):1032-1043.
Maksimenko VA, Hramov AE, Frolov NS, Lüttjohann A, Nedaivozov VO, Grubov VV, et al. Increasing Human Performance by Sharing Cognitive Load Using Brain-to-Brain Interface. Front Neurosci 2018 Dec 13;12:949
Kawase T, Sakurada T, Koike Y, Kansaku K. A hybrid BMI-based exoskeleton for paresis: EMG control for assisting arm movements. J Neural Eng 2017 Feb 09;14(1):016015
Maksimenko VA, Runnova AE, Zhuravlev MO, Makarov VV, Nedayvozov V, Grubov VV, et al. Visual perception affected by motivation and alertness controlled by a noninvasive brain-computer interface. PLoS ONE 2017 Dec 21;12(12):e0188700
Dear Max,
thank you very much for your insightful overview.
Nevertheless, I believe Elon Musk usually has the tendency to overstate how quickly his technology will advance. Among others, quite some years ago, he stated that Tesla in two years would release self driving cars which can drive solo across the US and can stop autonomously to recharge on the way. As we all know, the latter has not happened yet. Thus, I have some concerns about how Neuralink will develop, especially considering that animals’ brains – on which Neuralink has been tested – are by far less complex than humans’.
As you mentioned, the Neuralink, if developed as presented, will allow people with chronical diseases, such as Parkinson, to control their physical movements and communicate with the external environment through machines via their brain. The latter will have a considerable and impressive impact on the quality of their lives and of their beloved ones. However, as pointed out by Prof Andrew Jackson, professor of neural interfaces at Newcastle University, there are already several scientists working in this field. Elon Mask has, as usual, greater plans. Indeed, his goal is to develop a “superhuman cognition” aiming at enhancing the human brain in order to fight the threat he sees in the potential Artificial Intelligence’s dominance over the human race.
What scares me the most are the implications of the implementation of such a technology. An unimaginable number of data points will be collected and could be used by hackers and governments very easily to track humans, our thoughts, our moves… Ultimately, if there is a way for humans to control a machine, isn’t it also possible for the same machine to control the human? Indeed, with Neuralink, we are creating a very dangerous link that can turn against our best interests.