During the demonstration, the audience was shown a visual representation of the chip recording the pig’s neural activity produced while using its snout. Last week, Elon Musk himself unveiled the device in a live-streamed demonstration where a pig had the device implanted into its skull. The chip is inserted into a person’s skull and the electrodes are weaved carefully into the brain by a robot surgeon able to perform the procedure safely and with extreme accuracy. The neurotechnology company, which started in 2016, is developing implantable brain–machine interfaces (BMIs), including an implantable device constituting thousands of thin electrodes attached to a computer chip. So, if our brain is like a CPU, what is stopping us from fixing it by implanting computer chips inside it able to stimulate and rewire the “broken” neurons? Apparently, this is the question that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk asked himself before starting Neuralink, one of a handful of companies founded by Musk based upon a futuristic vision typical of science fiction novels. Any brain or spine injury or neurological disease will greatly decrease the firing power of these neurons, thus negatively impacting specific bodily functions related to the affected part of the brain. The neural wiring in the brain is similar to that of a computer: tightly packed neurons capable of sending and receiving millions of electrical signals every second. It controls every movement and decision we make and stimulates all the feelings and emotions we are capable of. If our bodies were computers, the brain would be our body’s CPU (Central Processing Unit). The device has recently received Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA and is set to begin clinical trials soon. Not with electric cars, or Mars-ready rockets, or flamethrowers this time the tech-savy entrepreneur is showing off yet another futuristic invention: Neuralink – a chip for the brain that could potentially solve many neurological disorders.
0 kommentar(er)
