“It's an announcement that obviously makes a lot of noise because of Elon Musk's tweet, but in reality”, behind the first implantation of a Neuralink chip in a humanthe tycoon's company that deals with brain-computer interfaces, There's more to it than the noise, explains to Adnkronos Salute Silvestro Micera, professor of Bioelectronics and Neural Engineering at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa and at the Polytechnic (Epfl) of Lausanne, a scientist known for his work on robotic arms and increasingly 'human' prostheses. “This technology – he assures, speaking of Neuralink chips – It's very interesting and very sturdy. I was asked: Isn't this a flight forward, a madness? I know the group of bioengineers who are working on it, some of them very well, and they are good, serious. And what they want to do and are doing is technologically interesting because it has some very important advantages over previous systems.”
“Using implantable interfaces in the brain to read minds, read information from neurons and control devices it's something that various groups have already done in the past. The idea is not new – he observes – what is new is the technology. The first advantage is that it has an implant system based on a robot, which allows you to implant less invasive electrodes, wires, very small 'hairs', in a truly precise way. And, in addition, the number of electrodes goes from a hundred to many thousands and this is very interesting because the greater the number, the greater the sampling of the brain and the greater the information we can extract, the greater “theoretically” the possibility for the patient to check more things and better. However, this will have to be seen, it is one of the bets that we will then have to see if we actually manage to win.” In detail, as the company explains online, the system created by Neuralink records neural activity through 1,024 electrodes distributed over 64 wires highly flexible and ultra-thin.
What timescales can you expect?
“There are different aspects – reasons Micera – In the next few months we will see if at least initially the Neuralink bet seems to have been won. But in general there are many technologies, it is a very fertile moment for neurotechnologies and neuroengineering. So it is possible that, not tomorrow but in the next 5 or 10 years, there will start to be more and more trading systems around“. In short, it is a phase of great hope, for the patients and also for us who deal with these activities. We will need to understand how many of these hopes, hopefully many, will become reality.”
Then there is another element to consider, for Micera: “The arrival of Neuralink has given a very strong and further shock to the market. In some way the arrival of one of the richest men in the world inevitably catalyzes attention on the one hand for the sector and perhaps makes it easier to acquire funds. On the other hand, the competitors have also woken up even more and have decided to go even faster. At least from the outside, my impression is that development has sped up further ” in this field. Who are Neuralink's main competitors? “I would mention two in particular – he lists – One seems to be Blackrock Neurotech, the first company to make implants in patients since 2006, a historic company that also seems to have had an acceleration recently, and then there is another very interesting reality , is Australian and is called Synchron, which has an innovative method of making implants in the brain via the vascular system, certainly less invasive since it doesn't need to open the brain.”
Italian research
That of brain-computer interfaces is a field which, the expert reflects, “will interest us more and more. With Pietro Mortini”, head of the Neurosurgery and Stereotactic Radiosurgery Unit at the Irccs San Raffaele hospital in Milan, “we have created a laboratory a few months ago precisely to enhance this entire series of activities, combining the engineering aspect of Sant'Anna with the clinical neurosurgical potential of San Raffaele. We have patients implanted with electrodes in the spinal cord“. For example, the story of a 32-year-old with a spinal cord injury caused by a sports accident, who returned to walking with the spinal cord neurostimulator implant, ended up in the news.
“And the objective we have set ourselves – continues the bioengineer – is to expand the typology of patients and also the typology of implants. Therefore imagine a collaboration in the future” with companies such as Neuralink and the others mentioned “to create implants in the brain of patients. From our point of view this is very interesting and the San Raffaele laboratory was designed to help us seize these opportunities. Objective: to help patients”. Who could benefit in general from the brain chips that are being talked about these days? The first people for whom Neuralink was authorized are people with ALS or quadriplegia caused by spinal cord injuries. “They are patients with very serious problems in terms of reducing voluntary commands, so they are certainly the first candidates. And in the future – concludes Micera – when the technology is a little more ready, it is possible to imagine perhaps even an application for stroke”.
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