7 ms·
I won't speak at all on Neuralink, but you don't necessarily need to stimulate that deep into the brain directly. You can piggyback off existing functional conn
by nvrspyx 4y ago
I won't speak at all on Neuralink, but you don't necessarily need to stimulate that deep into the brain directly. You can piggyback off existing functional connectivity between that deep area and an area closer to the cortical surface. Functional connectivity is when one area sends activation or inhibitory signals to another area when stimulated. This is the mechanism behind using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to treat depression ([0] as just one example) despite TMS's shallow stimulation depth. Using the functional connectivity also provides an avenue of sending inhibitory signals, not just activation signals. With that said, it requires functional imaging (fMRI) to determine the functional connections. Functional connectivity also isn't indefinitely static and it does change over time. .
0: https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.19070720 https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.2...
- nvrspyx 4y agoI should add that it's much more nuanced and complicated than how I've explained. Along with determining if a functional connection is excitatory or inhibitory, you need to ensure its direction as well because functional connections aren't necessarily bidirectional. You also want to be confident in how stimulating the target endpoint will affect the functional connection over time. It may potentially strengthen it (think "training") or weaken it (think "desensitizing"), thus potentially affecting the efficacy of the stimulation over time. As with most scientific fields, knowledge is built up one step at a time and you need to stand upon the shoulders of prior work before producing an application with confidence.