Elon Musk’s Neuralink Brain Chip Can Do Wonders for Animal Testing and Neuroscience

• Elon Musk hosted a live demo of his company NewLink on August 28, which featured a pig named Gertrude, in which the computer brain presented live signals from his brain.
• Neurlink has a chip proof-f concept for its purpose in humans, for its technology, for the treatment of neurological conditions, and for the purpose of one day merging human consciousness into computers, according to Musk.
• Neuroscientist Pro. Andrew Jackson told Business Insider that even if the Technol short comes in short according to Neurlink’s mission, it could prove to be hugely beneficial to the world of animal testing, which in turn can achieve medical success.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

In his quest to merge human consciousness with AI, Elon Musk could greatly improve the world of animal testing.

Along with his more well-known ventures Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk owns a company called Neuralink. Founded in 2017, Neurlink is trying to create a computer chip that can be implanted in a person’s brain.

Short-term applications to put these chips into people’s brains are to study and treat neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. They could theoretically restore the movement of paralyzed patients through a robotic prosthesis wirelessly connected to a brain chip.

But Musk is not satisfied with talking about the near term. During a demonstration of NewLink’s Gust, he claimed that the device would enable people to do things like “save and re-run memories” or call their car by telepath.

On August 28, Kasturi came live with a demo of a working neuralink device implanted in the brain of a pig named Gertrude.

The device was embedded in Gertrude’s skull, enabling him to detect electrodes by fencing wires in his brain, capable of recording, and theoretically stimulating brain activity.

To focus on solid science and Musk’s more bombastable claims, Business Insider spoke with Andrew Jackson, a neuroscientist professor at Newcastle University who has worked with placing neural interfaces in animals – such as the brain chips that Neurlink wants to create.

Jackson said he was impressed by the kit shown by Neurlink.

“The things that I think are important are that you can note the number of channels going forward,” he said.

Until recently, the best commercially available product, rather than wireless tests on animals, could record in about 100 channels – Neurlink’s device would increase that number to 1000.

Jackson said the Neuralink device is included in a smaller package that can go into the skull is also a big improvement. “It’s obviously very important that you’re going to be human, but I think it could also be very useful for people working with animals at the moment.”

Neural implants on animal test subjects at the moment contain a wire protruding through the skin, and a fairly wireless link covered by the skin reduces the risk of infection, Jackson said.

“Even if the number of channels or whatever – from the animal welfare point of view – doesn’t do anything more than what we could do at the moment, I think if you could do an experiment that doesn’t involve a wire coming through the skin, it The welfare of animals will increase, ”he said.

“In [Neuralink’s] “Credit they paid clear attention to the ethics of animal experiments,” Jackson added, “I felt it was good that they at least acknowledged that it’s important to take good care of these animals,” he said.

For the sake of any future human being who puts a neuralink in their brain, the welfare of test animals like Gertrude is important, as tests have to be carried out for many years to make sure the device is not harmful at any stage. , And sure it will work forever.

“Everything you put in the body starts to cover the scar tissue. If you’re trying to hear these tiny signals from the brain cells, as your device is inserted through the scar tissue, it becomes more and more difficult to get those signals. .This process can take anything from years to years with some types of electrodes, ”Jackson said.

“The most common age for spinal cord injury is 18 […] So you’ve been living with the condition for five decades. So, for these things to be really useful, the lifespan needs to be measured in decades, not months, ”he added.

During the performance, Musk said Gertrude had a neuralink in her brain for two months.

In action, the device appeared while relaying information, as Gertrude used her sn. T to confuse about it, and when placed on a treadmill she could accurately predict the position of her legs when she wrapped her legs.

For neuroscientists like Jackson, this was nothing new. “It’s something that has been shown many times before now, both walking, leg movements and upper limb movements in monkeys.”

Jackson was also more skeptical of Musk’s claim that Technol OneG could one day be used to increase human comprehension, mixing it with AI.

“Not to say that it won’t happen, but I think the underlying neuroscience is much weaker. We understand very little about how those processes work in the brain, and only because you can predict the condition of a pig’s foot. Walking on a treadmill does not automatically mean that you can read ideas, “he said.

Despite the trash claims of musk merging into human and computer consciousness, Jackson is keen to make the neuralink available to animal researchers.

“I hope they take this approach and try to make this technology widely available in the animal research world along with what they are trying to do, to get this approval for human use.”

Improving animal testing, in turn, means improving research in humans. “

I think this will be hugely beneficial for the sector […] Certainly this technology will have application in neuroscience research and any new technology is good and it will further the research. And that research could lead to improvements in the way we treat Parkinson’s disease [for example] Even so, owning one is still beyond the reach of the average person, “said Jackson.