“THE patient is able to move the computer mouse on the screen just by thinking”. This post by Elon Musk on… his own social networking platform X a few days ago which involved the first experimental implantation of the Telepathy microchip of… his own company Neuralink “ignited” again the debate about the hopes but also the possible dangers that “generate” the chipping of the human brain – to put it formally, the use of brain-computer interfaces (BCI). And Musk may envision such devices one day leading to “bionic humanoids” with telepathic powers, but he’s starting to realize his vision by implanting Telepathy in patients who have lost their mobility due to injuries or damage to the spinal cord.
At the moment we are only talking about one patient who was microchipped about a month ago and all we know about the course of his condition is the… famous post by Musk, who always draws the spotlight on himself, but without to provide any proof of his writings.
In any case, the era of chipping the human brain is here – in fact, it has started long before Musk’s Neuralink.
Field mapping
We are trying to outline this largely uncharted landscape today with the help of the Professor of Neurosurgery of the EKPA, Mr. Damianou Sakaits honorary president European Society of Functional Neurosurgery (the main scientific body that oversees and coordinates such treatments) and a member of the World Academy of Neurosurgery, an expert who for years has been using the cutting edge of technology to intervene in the brains of patients with different diseases through life-changing electrical stimulation – recently professor proceeded, for the first time in our country, to intervene with a chip in the spinal cord of two paralyzed patients, giving them (if possible) their lost mobility. As Mr. Sakas explains, “The central idea of using BCI is not new. A BCI-type interface is a system that detects and decodes electrical signals from the brain and converts them into appropriate commands that are fed to a computer or a robotic arm. These interfaces are intended for people whose brains are intact but have completely lost the ability to move after a spinal cord injury, ALS or brainstem stroke.”
Greek principle
In fact, the main inspiration for the subsequent development of such systems had a color… Greek, the professor points out. “Scientific progress in this field made use of work done in the early 1980s by the Greek Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota Apostolos Georgopoulos. Dr. Georgopoulos discovered that when we want to make a movement, our intention that is born in an area of the frontal lobe of the brain is transferred to an area of the motor cortex to execute it and there different populations of cells are activated – depending on the vector of its direction of movement – which make possible the movement of each of our members in one direction’. The Greek scientist even managed in experiments on monkeys to predict, using dozens of electrodes, not only the direction in which the experimental animals would move a remote control in space but even the speed of their movement and how it would change until its completion .
Building on this knowledge and thanks to the development of computers in the years that followed, scientists realized that by detecting the electrical activity and activation of these cells, we can “read” the patient’s intention to move the limb in a direction.
And this “reading” and “translation” of movement became possible for the first time in humans in 2004. Then in Boston, the first human brain implant was placed by the company BrainGate – “yeast” was research that had been done at Brown University in 1990s. “The BrainGate implant consisted of a small chip, about the size of a euro coin, which at the bottom had 64 pins that sunk into the motor area of the brain and could detect the patient’s intention to move towards each of the basic directions – to ‘up or down’ and to ‘right or left’. After detecting a certain movement, it was coded in the form of an electrical signal which was transferred to a receiver, integrated into a computer. The first device was implanted in a quadriplegic patient who was able to manipulate a cursor on a computer screen, according to a 2006 publication in the journal Nature – and the patient even managed to become a very good player at the video game Pong.” describes Mr. Sakas. Along the way, BrainGate created the BrainGate2, an evolution of the original implant, and is now conducting related research that will be completed in 2040.
The greats of the race
But in the last 20 years, other companies have entered the race of… brain chipping – it is estimated that they reach 15. The most important efforts concerning the implantation of systems in patients are the following:
• Blackrock Νeurotech: The rights to the original BrainGate implant were transferred to Blackrock Neurotech, which developed a sophisticated version of it that has been implanted in more than 40 patients with quadriplegia due to spinal cord injury, or ALS – the chip that has been implanted in the most patients worldwide . Two of these patients are able to drive a car using the device.
• Synchronous: Synchron, which seems to be Musk’s… rival in awe as billionaires have invested in it Jeff Bezos and bill gates, has created the smallest and least invasive brain-computer interface that has been successfully implanted in a number of patients in the US and other countries – so its implant called the Synchron Switch is currently leading the race of… tycoon competition. This particular device is not placed in the motor cortex, but in a vessel – it is developed in a cylindrical expandable mesh (similar to the stent used in the treatment of vascular diseases) and placed by catheterization inside a vein that passes through the appropriate area in his motor cortex brain. The implant receives signals from the brain and transfers them to a receiver, placed on the patient’s chest, which then transmits them wirelessly to a computer.
• Precision Neuroscience: Precision Neuroscience’s device follows the path of most devices of its kind as it is placed in the motor cortex of the brain. The big difference is that it doesn’t sink into the parenchyma of the brain, but just touches it as a small adhesive tape – so it’s a less invasive and traumatic procedure. So far the implant has only been placed in patients who underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor and has given satisfactory results in terms of receiving and decoding signals. However, it has not yet received approval for use in quadriplegic patients.
Musk’s device
And Musk’s device is implanted in the motor cortex. But it is a very sophisticated implant as it uses more than 1,000 ultra-thin electrodes to record and transmit the brain’s nerve activity. The signals received per second provide a very large amount of information about the patient’s intention to make a movement, and the analysis of this huge amount of information is only possible with the much more advanced software that Telepathy has than other similar devices. From the analysis, an accurate and safe conclusion can be drawn about what movement the patient thinks they would like to perform. Implanting the device is such a delicate process that the company has built a special surgical machine called the R1, which is tasked with placing the chip in the motor cortex.
Musk’s ultimate goal, according to his own words, is to one day use this technology to operate artificial limbs on amputees, which will be manufactured with the “compass” of Tesla’s know-how, but also to treat diseases such as obesity, autism, schizophrenia, depression. For now, however, Neuralink has received the “green light” from the competent US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since last May to test its chip in patients with mobility problems due to spinal cord injuries or paralysis due to ALS. It remains unknown how many patients will take part in these trials which are expected to last six years and for which ‘recruitment’ began last September.
According to Mr. Saka, all these methods which are the “child” of the rapid development of technology and science will continue to develop and mature – after all, for the last 20 years electrodes have been placed in the brains of patients, and in our country, with great success in treating a host of conditions, from Parkinson’s and epilepsy to depression and dystonias, outlining the field’s promising future. “It is difficult to make an accurate prediction as to when the field of invasive electrotherapy, or bioelectronic medicine as it is called by some experts, will come of age, but it is realistic to expect its maturation and the wider application of brain-computer interfaces to patients in a decade time horizon” concludes the professor. A decade that, as everything shows, will be particularly… chipped. We are watching.
Bioethical issues and the threat from “thinking machines”
In their current form, brain-computer interfaces, such as Neuralink’s, “read” the sufferer’s intention to move a limb in a certain direction. They cannot detect thoughts related to his personality or ideology, do not interfere with his mental functions, and cannot influence them. “But there are other devices that have been used in recent decades such as electrodes for Parkinson’s or the epilepsy which can be placed in deep key points of the brain and affect the personality, e.g. to turn a very aggressive person into a calm personality. So the main issue is whether with the placement of a microchip a hybrid of man and machine results that degrades human uniqueness,” notes Mr. Sakas and adds that studies of patients who were placed with a Neuralink-type implant have shown that many felt that they were not the same people now while others said the interface made them feel more confident and some that they viewed the implanted interface as an extension of themselves fused with their body.
Coexistence of man and machine
“As soon as – with the incorporation of a device – man’s capabilities are extended beyond the limitations set by nature, man turns into a combined human-machine coexistence, a man-machine or a cyber-humanoid (cyborg). There are intellectuals who argue that it is a positive development to transform us into “Homo sapiens technologicus” with enhanced functions and capabilities. Others, however, point to the risk of altering the human personality, the authenticity of the human species and ultimately its easier manipulation,” the professor points out.
The question of “consciousness”
At the same time, the big question of the “consciousness” of machines is raised. As machines evolve can they become “thinking” threatening human existence? As Mr. Sakas answers, “machines, by definition, are impossible to possess properties that could be considered analogous to human consciousness”.
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