Science fiction movies often appear by mind control of the handsome picture of the machine, and with the development of modern technology, this technology may not be far away from us!
Don’t look down upon these small neurons activated action, because all the produce of wisdom, is the one of subtle neuron activity accumulated and come, when you’re reading this sentence, the countless neurons have been aroused in your brain, identify the text type, converted to phonemes, and meaningful words.
The three components of a bCI are:
The action potential of neurons can be recorded both invasively (e.g. by placing electrodes directly in the brain) and noninvasively (e.g. by electroencephalograph and near-infrared spectrometer).
Decoding uses the technology of machine learning to process brain signals and generates control signals through pattern recognition.
Application
Control signals can initiate changes in external devices; Brain-computer interfaces can also be used to stimulate the brain. BCI (Brain-Computer Interface) was first used in 2004 when 13 patients with paralysis were implanted with a system called BrainGate. The device consists of an array of small electrodes called the Utah Array. It was originally developed at Brown University in the US.
The system successfully helped a woman who was paralysed by a stroke drink coffee using a robotic arm. It has also helped paraplegic patients type at eight words per minute and has been successfully used on disabled limbs. In 2017, Professor Robert Kirsch of Case Western Reserve University also published a study on BrainGate in the Lancet, The device was successfully applied to the hands of a man paralysed in a bicycle accident, allowing him to eat under his own power for the first time in eight years.
Brain-machine interactions like this have changed many people’s lives in one way or another. Neural activity can be stimulated and recorded. Cochlear implants convert sound into electrical signals and deliver them to the Brain, where Deep Brain Stimulation surgically implants wires and pulse generators that generate electricity to help control Parkinson’s disease.
Technology like this is also being used to treat other motor disorders and mental illnesses. NeuroPace, a Silicon Valley firm, has developed a system that monitors the brain’s momentary activity and signals during epileptic seizures and generates electrical stimulation in real time to stop them.
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But brain-computer interfaces have unlimited possibilities and challenges. In one of the most advanced studies in animal testing, Neuropixel, a tiny silicon probe developed by University College London and the Allen Institute, was used to monitor cell-level brain activity in mice. A team at the University of California, San Diego, has also successfully developed a brain-computer interface that can predict the melody of zebra finches.
At the California Institute of Technology, cells in the visual cortex of macaques have been able to encode brain signals to produce highly accurate faces by studying how they interpret human facial features. However, studying the human brain directly is even more difficult, not only because of regulatory restrictions, but also because the structure of the human brain is more complex than that of other species.
Even brain-computer interfaces that have proved groundbreaking in the laboratory for humans have struggled to make the transition to clinical applications. The BrainGate system was first reported in Wired magazine in 2005, and Cyberkinetics tried to commercialize it in the early stages, but NeuroPace has been pushing for regulatory changes for more than 20 years and expects 500 patients to try it this year.
Even so, there are many clinical challenges, and BCI technology still needs specialists to operate, says Leigh Hochberg, one of BrainGate’s main developers. “Every time the wire passes through the skull, there is a risk of infection, and the implant inevitably moves around the brain, which can damage cells.” And the brain’s immune response to foreign objects may trigger a scab reaction, coating the electrodes and causing them to fail.
In addition, current implants record only a fraction of brain signals. The Utah array used by BrainGate can capture the firing of only a few hundred neurons, and a Northwestern study found that since 1950, the number of recording neurons has doubled every seven years, compared with the doubling in computing power of Moore’s Law every two years. Far from it.
The Wyss Centre in Switzerland may be able to extend neurotechnology from the laboratory to the clinical level. The main challenges include funding, says John Donoghue, director of the research center. Investors are often put off by the long research timeline (meaning long payback time) and the fear of difficult technology. And this technology requires a lot of interdisciplinary expertise; But the most important thing is that the understanding of how the brain works, which is at the heart of the technology, is still in its infancy and has a long way to go.