Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant company, announced this Tuesday the launch of a study to test its implant in a new use: allow a person to control a robotic arm using only their thoughts. “We are very pleased to announce the approval and launch of a new feasibility trial to extend BCI control [de Interfaz Cerebro-Computadora] using the N1 implant to a research assistive robotic arm,” Neuralink announced in a post on social media platform X, also owned by Musk.
Brain-computer interface (BCI) is a system that allows a person to directly control external devices with their brain waves. It works by reading and decoding movement signals from neurons. Neuralink’s BCI consists of a coin-sized device, called the N1, that is surgically implanted into the brain by a robot. The company is currently evaluating the safety of your BCIas well as its ability to control a computer in people with paralysis.
Moving a computer or prosthetic arm is not a new feat for BCIs. In 2008a team led by Andrew Schwartz at the University of Pittsburgh showed that a monkey could control a robotic arm to feed itself using signals from its brain. After that, the researchers moved on to human volunteers. In a 2012 study published in the magazine Naturetwo people paralyzed by a stroke were able to guide a robotic arm to reach and grab objects simply by thinking about it. One of them was able to serve herself coffee for the first time in 14 years. In another study from 2016a man with a BCI regained his sense of touch using a robotic arm.
How does the Neuralink brain-computer interface work?
The BCIs used in those studies were crude devices that required running a cable from the research participants’ heads to a computer that decoded brain signals. On the other hand, the Neuralink system is wireless.
Earlier this year, Neuralink demonstrated on social media that its BCI can be used to control a computer cursor. In a video posted on Xshowed study participant Noland Arbaugh using the Neuralink device to play chess and other games on a computer. Arbaugh, who was left quadriplegic after a swimming accident in 2016, spoke to WIRED earlier this year about how the implant has given him a sense of independence.
Arbaugh underwent brain surgery in January to receive the Neuralink implant, but a few weeks later, the device began to malfunction. The implant consists of 64 strands of thin, flexible wire that penetrate the brain tissue. Each thread contains 16 electrodes that collect neural signals. In a blog post from May, Neuralink said that several threads had retracted from Arbaugh’s brain, causing him to temporarily lose control of the cursor. Neuralink was able to regain control of Arbaugh by modifying its brain recording algorithm to make it more sensitive and changing the way it translates neural signals into cursor movements.
The second patient
Alex, the second Neuralink participant, received the implant in July. In one company update published before the intervention, Neuralink managers said they had taken measures to reduce the likelihood of thread retraction, including reducing brain movement during the intervention and reducing the space between the implant and the surface of the brain.
The new robotic arm study, according to Neuralink’s post in Neuralink nor in clinicaltrials.govan online repository of medical studies involving human participants.
“We congratulate Neuralink for receiving approval for its feasibility trial,” said Marcus Gerhardt, CEO and co-founder of Blackrock Neurotech, the company that manufactures the Utah Matrix, the brain implant used in previous studies of mind-controlled robotic limbs. “Each advance in neurotechnology brings us closer to empowering people with neurological disorders.”
Brian Dekleva, a research scientist at the University of Pittsburgh’s Rehabilitation Neural Engineering Laboratories, says the biggest challenge to achieving BCI control of an assistive robotic arm is the need for calibration. “The more complicated the control, the more degrees of freedom you add, the longer calibration will generally take,” he explains. “People don’t want to sit down and do a half-hour calibration at the beginning of each day to be able to use their device.”
If that limitation can be overcome, BCIs that control robotic arms could allow people with paralysis to perform simple daily tasks without assistance.
Article originally published in WIRED. Adapted by Mauricio Serfatty Godoy.
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