Brain-computer interface research pioneer: Musk's investment in brain-computer interface is marketing

　　Using machines, we can connect people's brains to exchange or share thoughts. Furthermore, we can use machines to save human memories, thus achieving true "immortality". Such a scenario is the real future of human civilization in the eyes of Silicon Valley's "Iron Man" Musk. Let's learn about the relevant content with the mobile phone portable editor.

　　In April this year, Musk announced his investment in a brain-computer interface startup called Neuralink in the United States. Their goal is to eliminate the gap between the brain and the machine: instead of conveying thoughts to another person through a mobile phone, thoughts can be transferred directly from one person's brain to another. Most of the Neuralink team members are from MIT, Duke University and IBM, and their research areas include neural dust, cortical physiology and human psychophysics.

　　With Musk's support, the company has attracted global attention, but some people have raised questions, including the mentor of some members of the team, Miguel Nicolelis, founder of the Duke University Center for Neural Engineering Research and a pioneer in brain-computer interface research.

　　Recently, Nicolelis said in an exclusive interview with The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) in Beijing: "Although I have two students on the Neuralink team, to be honest, I don't think their path will work. Musk is good at marketing, but brain-computer interface is not only a study of computer engineering, but more of a study of the brain. So I don't think their goal will be achieved in the end."

　　Nicolelis is currently a professor of neurobiology at Duke University School of Medicine, and is also a member of the French Academy of Sciences, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, and the author of Beyond Boundries. In 2004, he was named one of the 20 most influential scientists in the world by the American popular science magazine Scientific American, and his research was named one of the 10 most groundbreaking scientific and technological innovations by MIT Technology Review.

Brain-Computer Interface by Nicolelis

　　In 2014, at the opening ceremony of the Brazil World Cup, a 14-year-old Brazilian boy with high paraplegia wore a "mechanical armor" and kicked the first ball of this global feast. The designer of this armor was Nicolelis.

　　Using "mechanical armor" to help patients restore their physical functions

　　The brain-computer interface system refers to the use of electrode sensors throughout the brain to receive neural signals from the brain and try to drive external machinery to complete a certain action. In this way, brain signals that originally required nerve conduction can be transmitted in another way - converted into language, text, and even converted into signals to control the movement of external devices. The interface can achieve rapid and efficient connection between the brain and related equipment, regardless of the distance and size of these machines, even as large as an aircraft, they can move freely. Simply put, it can achieve "remote access."

　　How brain-computer interfaces work

　　The first successful brain-computer interface experiment was born in 1963. British neurophysiologist W. Gray Walter discovered the correlation negativity effect (CNV), that is, half a second before a person realizes the action he is about to take, the brain will have a negative peak of activity. His experiment was to treat epilepsy patients, and he installed electrodes on the patients at the identified lesions in the brain. During the treatment, when the patients were enjoying the slides, he secretly connected the EEG electrodes to the "potential converter" and converted the field potential signals of the patient's motor cortex into slide switching signals. It was found that every time the patient intended to change the slide, the slide changed by itself before pressing the control button. Such success has given future generations more

　　Nicolelis began researching brain-computer interfaces in 1984, when he wrote his doctoral dissertation on central nervous system connections for muscle control. In 2002, he came up with the idea of ​​developing a brain-controlled exoskeleton.

　　Nicolelis told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that his series of studies started with a monkey. Nicolelis successfully taught a monkey to control a virtual arm through a brain-computer interface and make the right choice to get a fruit juice reward. Later, his research team also trained monkeys to use a wireless brain-computer interface to remotely control wheelchairs, allowing the monkeys to move around the room at will and pick fruits that appeared randomly in the room.

　　After the successful experiment on monkeys, Nicolelis and his team realized that such experiments might help disabled patients, allowing them to use external mechanical devices to restore their body functions or even enhance their body functions.

　　Nicolelis told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that in his Brazilian laboratory, there are currently 16 patients working with them to study the brain-computer interface system. One of the patients is paralyzed below the head and cannot perceive all the body parts below the head. With the help of Nicolelis' team, the patient underwent a brain-computer interface research experiment. After 6 months of experiments and practice, he has now regained the perception of his chest and responded to stimulation below the chest.

　　The boy who kicked off the World Cup in Brazil

　　The teenager who kicked off the World Cup in Brazil is another successful case. Nicolelis' team developed a set of "mechanical armor" for him, which can also be called an "exoskeleton" (exoskeleton) mechanical equipment.

　　The operating principle of this exoskeleton system is that the paralyzed teenager's brain first sends out action signals, which are wirelessly transmitted to a laptop-sized computing device in the backpack. The computer converts the brain signals into digital action instructions, allowing the exoskeleton to stabilize the teenager's body first, and then induce the mechanical legs to move back and forth on the lawn. When the teenager finds that his feet are close to the football, he imagines kicking it with his feet, and the brain signals will instantly command the mechanical legs on the exoskeleton to kick the ball out. In addition, this machine has a certain pressure sensing function. When his feet step on the ground, a certain pressure signal will be transmitted, and the patient can feel the existence of the lawn.

　　Brain-computer interface is not just a simple "brain opening"

　　The success of brain-computer interfaces in paralyzed patients has also made many commercial companies see the development potential of this technology. In fact, in addition to Neuralink, which Musk invested in, there are also startups such as NeuroSky and BrianCo that are making corresponding products.

　　In addition to commercial companies, some government departments are very interested in this technology and have even considered using it in the military, such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

　　In 2016, DARPA demonstrated the use of nerves to control a robotic arm through a brain-computer interface, which allows individuals to directly experience touch through a neural interface system connected to a robotic arm. In July this year, DARPA also announced that it would invest $65 million to start the "Neural Engineering System Design Program" (NESD), with the goal of creating a high-fidelity brain implant chip that can connect 1 million neurons.

　　However, in Nicolelis's view, such commercial investment is irrational. "Our current understanding of the brain is still very limited, and the technology is not very mature. If commercial companies invest based on such technology, I think it is irrational. I think this kind of investment that only focuses on the short term is wrong," Nicolelis told The Paper.

　　Nick Leslie insists there are two reasons why this technology needs more research in the lab.

　　First, brain-computer interface technology is a complex interdisciplinary subject, which requires a lot of money and scientific research resources in both engineering technology and scientific principles. Commercial companies often only focus on engineering technology research and development, but know nothing about the working principles of the brain. At present, scientific research knows very little about the working mechanism of the brain, especially the laws of information encoding. But even if scientists can figure out these laws, they still need biomedical engineering methods to copy, transfer and preserve complex nervous systems.

　　Second, there are currently two ways to study brain-computer interfaces. The first is invasive, which requires surgery in the human brain to implant a chip. Although implanting a chip will make the machine connection more accurate, the risks of surgery should not be underestimated, and the cost is also high. According to previous experimental statistics, after 2-3 months, the implanted electrodes will gradually fail due to the wrapping of glial cells, and will no longer be able to record the discharge activity of nerve cells. It can last for 2-3 years, but the signal quality gradually decreases, and the working performance of the brain-computer interface system will also decrease accordingly. The second is non-immersive. In this way, the human brain does not need surgery, but needs to wear a cap full of electrodes, which is connected to the machine through this cap. In this way, although people do not need surgery, the control of the accuracy and speed of the machine will be relatively weak.

　　"I think it is wrong to rush to make money when the technology is not relatively mature. In addition, I would like to say that I am also opposed to the use of such technology in the military field. If someone uses this technology in the military in the future, I will be the first person to oppose it," said Nicolelis.

    The above is an introduction about Musk’s investment in brain-computer interface, a pioneer in mobile phone portable brain-computer interface research, as a marketing measure. If you want to know more relevant information, please pay more attention to eeworld. eeworld Electronic Engineering will provide you with more complete, detailed and updated information.