Decades after the first demonstration of brain computer interfaces, we have reached a “tipping point” in creating the first reliable devices that can read our thoughts, according to the man who pioneered the technology.
Professor John Donoghue, who developed BrainGate – the first “brain chip” – at Brown University in Rhode Island, has just shared in the Queen Elizabeth Prize, the world’s preeminent engineering award, in recognition of his work to “unlock” the minds of people with paralysis.
“If you want to control a computer, or you want to be able to restore speech, I think there’s no reason why we can’t see those as fast as somebody can produce a device that’s approved,” said the neuroscientist.
Getting devices “approved” is now what it’s all about. That means satisfying medical regulators that the benefits of surgically implanting a chip in the brain outweigh the risks.
And why the first human trials are focusing on those in the greatest medical need, like people paralysed from the neck down.
Elon Musk‘s Neuralink is one of about a dozen companies now working to commercialise BCIs (brain computer interface), or brain chips.
Its technology is based on Prof Donoghue’s early work – an array of electrodes connected to a computer chip that can detect nerve signals in an area of brain tissue, then decode the signals to restore function that has been lost.
Musk’s Neuralink is looking to commercialise brain chips. Pic: Reuters
Prof Donoghue and his team were the first to show a BCI could be used to restore deliberate movement – “control” they call it – to a paralysed individual.
More than two decades ago, when he embarked on BCI research, some neuroscientists weren’t even sure the brain regions in people with severe paralysis…
