4 ms·
There are a half-dozen groups (companies & in academia) that are building neutral stim & recording platforms with thousands of channels & high bandwidth comms s
by beambot 6y ago
There are a half-dozen groups (companies & in academia) that are building neutral stim & recording platforms with thousands of channels & high bandwidth comms so that we can at least capture, analyse, & transmit signals to start learning & closing the feedback loop. Think of it like designing the first real integrated circuits so that we could eventually get the 8086.
This needn't be directly in the brain. E.g. there are a lot of groups looking at the parasympathetic nervous system (ie vagus nerve) for a host of organ control applications.
Been almost 5 years since I was working in the field... But there seems to have been a lot of progress already. Big limiting factor for iteration velocity is identifying viable test subjects -- elective participants aren't really an option (few volunteers, ethically questionable, & regulation); you have to find people with diseases or conditions that can justify such extreme interventions.
- runawaybottle 6y agoI’ve had parts of my body inactive due to peripheral nerve damage after an injury (peripheral nerves mostly always heal, so function came back), and I can tell you I would have easily opted into any experimental surgery that could restore function. You don’t have to go far to find candidates, walk into any ER today and you’ll find trauma victims with irreversible nerve damage from a common car/motorcycle accident.
- beambot 6y agoI agree with your assessment: it's easier to find subjects with peripheral nerve issues. It gets progressively harder to find subjects as you move up the chain, as the risks compound quickly: peripheral > central > brain. As you can imagine, neural link is targeting some of the most invasive -- hence animal subjects.