Whatever your thoughts may be about Elon Musk, he always seems to be coming up with new ideas and one of his most recent is his company called Neuralink which is researching and developing devices implanted directly into the brain which can communicate with a computer. As you may have seen in the news, the first person to receive this implant, Nolan Arbaugh, is a quadriplegic (spinal injury) and now able to control his computer mouse using only his mind. No kidding.
So how does Neuralink work? Although the technology is largely proprietary (secret), the simple explanation is that a quarter size “N-1 chip” is surgically implanted into the brain through a hole made into the skull. Attached to the N-1 chip are over 1000 extremely thin electrodes which must be precisely inserted into the brain at predetermined locations so that they can directly stimulate the correct neurons. Since the human hand is not accurate enough to place the electrodes into the proper position (and avoid tiny blood vessels in the brain!), the “R-1 robot” performs the insertion process. Amazing.
In Nolan’s case, the N-1 chip was implanted into the motor cortex in the frontal part of his brain which controls bodily movements. Being that his spine was severed in a swimming accident, his brain cannot communicate with his hands but nerve impulses are still getting sent from the motor cortex. To bypass this communication problem, the N-1 chip receives these impulses from the embedded electrodes and wirelessly sends them to a nearby computer for interpretation by Neuralink software which then moves the cursor on the computer screen, based on Nolan’s thoughts. Wow.
For Nolan this was a life changing event with huge potential for increasing his mobility and independence in the future. However, some of the electrodes did retract from Nolan’s brain reducing effectiveness but Neuralink engineers were able to adjust the software to compensate.
So how can this technology be used to help those that are blind or visually impaired?
Enter “Blind Sight” which Elon announced just recently.
The goal of Blind Sight will be to utilize similar implantable devices to bypass damaged eyes or optic nerves and send signals directly to the visual cortex (back part of brain) which transforms information sent from the eyes into the actual “picture” that we see. Instead of sending signals out as in Nolan’s implant, Blind Sight implants will receive an incoming signal from a GoPro camera or similar device which “digitizes” the image and sends it to Neuralink software on a mobile device or computer for processing. The processed signal is then transmitted to the N-1 implant in the visual cortex which stimulates the proper neurons allowing the patient to “see.”
Sound too good to be true?
Although Neuralink has made some incredibly exciting advances in computer/brain interfacing, some of the early press and claims by Neuralink to “cure” blindness, in my opinion, may be overstated at this time but who knows what the future will bring. The first human trials in Blind Sight are scheduled for 2025 and we will keep you updated with advancements and other articles relating to this promising new field in eye care. More to come!