Mint Primer: Can brain-tech treat paralysis, mental illness?
Neuralink’s brain-computer interface is based on a tiny chip that will be surgically implanted in the brain. This chip will be implanted in an area of the brain that controls neural impulses for movement. Once inserted, this chip will read and wirelessly transmit the brain’s impulses to an app placed in front of the patient, which will produce outputs based on a user’s thoughts.
This will be done by decoding the instructions being sent by the brain, and translating the neural impulses into action on the screen. In the first trials, the firm will get people suffering from paralysis to move a cursor on a computer screen. It’s called a brain computer interface (BCI).
Researchers globally, including in India, are experimenting with both invasive and non-invasive BCIs, which include hairnet-like structures that have sensors and electrodes to recognize neural impulses from the brain. Using these, they can stimulate parts of the brain. An early instance is a landmark 2011 clinical research in the US on depression patients.
It proved that with correct stimulations, patients can augment what their nervous system is lacking—and show strong signs of improvement compared to traditional cures such as psychotherapy and drugs. The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is building BCIs to capture impulses of intentions from the brain. This project is at a prototype stage.
It is being tested by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Startup BrainSight AI is working on ‘connectomics’—studying neural links to create a brain map and understand the reasons behind ailments. C-DAC’s BCI prototype has a similar model as Neuralink, where sensors try to capture brain impulses in order to understand what a paralysis patient is
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