Neuralink -decoded

Recently Elon Musk demonstrated a device called ‘Link’ which can read brain signals with the help of hair-like electrodes. The device needs to be implanted inside the skull! This makes it a little bit scary, but Elon has created an operating procedure in which a person can get a ‘link’ implanted within a day. But what is the necessity of such kind of device, what advantages that one can achieve through this? This article contains some detailed information that might answer these questions.

Elon Musk with 'link' device transplanting machine. Credit: Neuralink/YouTube, website

What is ‘link’?

It is a device which is called a ‘Brain-computer interface’ in a broader sense. It is an interface between our brain and a computer, just like an input device (mouse & keyboard) to interact with the brain. These interface devices let a computer get some data from the brain and send commands to the brain if possible. So, they’re kind of a bridge between the brain and a computer. But Accessing brain signals is not easy, for that we have to be extremely careful about the working functionality.

Brain-computer interface implant, credits: Neuralink/youtube

Our brain is made of hundreds of Billions of special kinds of cells called ‘neurons’, each task within the body is controlled by a gigantic network of neurons. So, our brain is capable of processing information that is collected by the nerves throughout the body. This network of neurons entirely works on the passing of electrical signals through them.

By carefully probing these electrical signals one can understand what is going inside our head. All though, our brain processes petabyte of data which is superior to any supercomputer that we have currently.

Neuralink uses hair-like needle electrodes which are carefully inserted into the brain tissue. The electrodes sense electric field radiated by the millions of neurons and a voltage is generated across the electrodes according to faraday’s law of EM induction. It worth mentioning that the induced voltage is very weak and very hard to detect. These voltage signals are then identified, processed by a battery-operated computer attached to the system. This whole arrangement is called a ‘Link’.

Needle-like electrode inserted into the brain, credits: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/703801v4.full.pdf

The data accumulated by the ‘Links’ can be wirelessly transferred into any computing platform which is outside of the body. In case the battery dies, one wireless charring module charges the battery inside it.

 Application of the ‘link’

According to Elon Musk, the primary objective of his company ‘Neuralink’ is to create Brain-computer interface chips (‘link’) which can detect some of the diseases related to neuron damage. Which includes, paralysis, blindness, deafness, memory loss, stroke detection, etc.

That sounds great all the systems in our body are kept functional by the brain only. Due to some of the damages in neurons, sometimes some of the complications arise. With ‘artificial Intelligence’ the symptoms can be identified way before it appears in front of us. Just like, there exist some algorithms that can detect cancer cells much better than a formal diagnosis.

The 'link' by Neuralink, credits: NEURALINK 2020

These chips open up a field of applications where researches and engineers can work better in the diagnostics of some chronic diseases. If the detection works well, the next step would be to develop an appropriate model to treat the diseases. As chemical medication always leads to severe side effects.

To show the effectiveness of the ‘link’ Musk demonstrated a pig with a ‘link’ implanted in its head. The implant collects the data from the pig’s head and sophisticated AI algorithms predict the muscle movements. To proof the effectiveness of the method, one camera is also used to detect the muscle movements in real-time.

It was observed that the predicted movement from ‘link’ devices is very close to the real-time data. This opens up a wide area of research and development. 

Movement prediction by using 'Link' & actual movement tracking, credits: Neuralink/youtube

Other players in the ground

Elon Must is not the only person who is investing in this application, there other organizations who are working in synthetic organs, prosthetics by using ‘Brain-computer interfaces’ like ‘link’.

Another neuroscience start-up ‘Kernel’(link) ‘wants to improve human cognition’. Right now, they are on treating people with Alzheimer's and helping paraplegics regain movement.

‘Paradromics’(link) is trying to build the first high-data-rate brain-computer interface, where data is exchanged seamlessly between brains and computers. They are targeting illnesses such as blindness, paralysis, and mental illness, which today are considered untreatable, can be treated by using sophisticated thousands of sensor channels.

In India CDAC-Noida (link) is engaged with activity in respect for Non-Invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces (Design and Development of Applications for Physically Challenged Persons) by incorporating EEG signals. This might enable people suffering from physical disabilities such as stroke or limb paralysis to operate prosthetics devices by using their brains.      

Conclusion:

Operations on brain-computer Interface is a new and evolving area of work. Which falls under the research and development boundaries.  A few organizations have demonstrated their finding nowadays, but it has to go a long way before it can be directly implemented in the human body. First of all, all the research has to be standardized, and secondly, their operation has to be approved by the concerned Medical authority in the geographical region. Young scientists and researchers are encouraged to take part in the R&D activities related to the ‘brain-computer interface’.