Elon Musk has made many claims about Neuralink Corp., his brain-machine interface company. On Twitter and on podcasts, the billionaire has touted skills that seem miraculous: alleviating depression, helping with obsessive compulsive disorder and treating traumatic brain injuries.
Now Neuralink, whose work has largely been shrouded in secrecy, is set to give a public “progress update” on Friday.
In the run-up to the big reveal, Musk has given a glimpse of the company’s technology. An early look came a year ago, when the Neuralink team showed tiny electrodes on thin, flexible probes that they said could penetrate brain tissue with minimal damage and ultimately help restore brain function in people with brain injuries. traumatic. The team has already been placing them in rats and primates.
Will the devices really be able to make the breakthroughs Musk says they can? Here’s a rundown of what we know so far about Musk’s startup: the latest claims, the technology, and what neuroscientists say is actually possible.
Claim: Neuralink will soon be able to implant its technology in humans
On May 7, Musk appeared on the popular podcast, Joe Rogan Experience, and made a distinctive claim about Neuralink: The startup would be “capable of implanting a neural link in less than a year in a person, I think.”
The prediction is not as groundbreaking as it might seem. Musk was describing a procedure that occurs quite routinely to treat conditions such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s, despite potentially fatal risks, such as brain bleeds.
Justin Sánchez, who helped fund research done by Neuralink scientists when he ran the bureau of biological technologies at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, estimates that around 200,000 people around the world have some form of neurotechnology implanted in your brain. In fact, the technology is so well developed at this point that the Battelle Memorial Institute, of which Sánchez is a member, has developed a non-implanted neurotechnology-based device that aims for nothing grander than helping people improve their swing swings. Golf.
The other important element of Musk’s statement was that Neuralink is on track for human trials next year. To perform human testing so quickly, the company would need to obtain an exemption from the multi-year normal regulatory process from the Food and Drug Administration. That may be possible, other brain implants have received exemptions. But the Neuralink device could face additional challenges.
Currently, the company uses flexible polymers, which are unlikely to last a decade in the human body, the minimum period of time the FDA likes to see in medical devices that cannot be easily removed. “If you want to test whether something can last 10 years, you really have to wait 10 years,” says Matt Angle, CEO of Paradromics Inc., a brain-machine interface company based in Austin, Texas.
A report published this week on the health news site Stat News detailed internal tensions at Neuralink, citing former employees who said the company’s culture could be chaotic and it quickly passed through scientific talent. According to two anonymous former employees, he had explored the possibility of passing the US regulatory process by conducting human trials in China or Russia.
Claim: Neuralink Devices May Treat Addiction and Depression
On July 10, Musk took to Twitter with another notable statement. Musk was asked by a Twitter user if Neuralink could be used to retrain the part of the brain that causes addiction and depression. Musk replied, “Sure. This is cool and scary. “
Neuroscientists agree that placing electrodes on the brain could help mitigate those conditions. In fact, researchers beyond Neuralink are working on it now, including Alik Widge, a psychiatrist and biomedical engineer at the University of Minnesota. The treatment involves the application of electrodes to a point in the brain called the internal capsule and works by stimulating connections with the prefrontal cortex to improve cognitive functions such as perception and judgment. About 200 patients worldwide have tried the technique for depression, Widge said.
In several countries, opioid addicts have electrodes implanted in areas of the brain that control addiction. That includes the US, where a West Virginia man underwent the procedure late last year at the WVU Rockefeller Institute for Neuroscience. He has since abstained from opioids, a spokeswoman said. A second opioid patient underwent the same surgery earlier this month.
While there are obstacles to wide adoption, there is no reason why Neuralink cannot advance in these areas in the future. In a 2018 review of studies of deep brain stimulation and its effects on depression, scientists said the results “were promising,” but the technique remained experimental. “The psychiatrists I talk to say they want to see much stronger efficacy data,” Widge said.
Claim: startup will be able to mitigate conditions like obsessive compulsive disorder
On July 18, a Twitter user asked if Neuralink could help obsessive compulsive disorder patients and if it could stimulate the release of oxytocin, serotonin, and other chemicals. Musk replied simply, “Yes.”
Programs across the country already do this, so it’s plausible that Neuralink could one day accomplish the same thing, experts said. However, scientists’ understanding of exactly how the technology works is still evolving. “We just have the understanding of bits and pieces,” said Rachel Davis, director of OCD and neuromodulation programs at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, who is working on the technology.
Many scientists see great potential here, primarily because existing drugs often fall short when it comes to OCD and related conditions. “The next big wave for these stimulation technologies will be mood,” said Dave Rosa, CEO of NeuroOne Medical Technologies Corp.
Claim: Neuralink Could “Solve” Brain Injuries and Treat Conditions Like Autism and ALS
On July 18, responding to Musk’s call for job seekers who wanted to help “solve” brain and spinal injuries, a Twitter user asked if Neuralink could also help disabled people living with injuries, autism, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. or ELA. Musk responded that he had that potential.
Deep brain stimulation, or treatment using electrodes implanted in the brain, is already used for traumatic brain injuries. Many patients have already undergone the procedure with promising results. Encouraging signs are also emerging that these technologies could help address autism. The implantation of electrodes in the brain of autistic people has helped improve symptoms in many cases.
However, treating ALS can be more difficult. Vikash Gilja, a former Neuralink employee who now teaches at the University of California, San Diego and runs a translational neural engineering research lab there, says it would be a difficult disease to combat with brain-machine interfaces, because it affects such wide areas. of the brain. “We are more likely to see pharmaceutical treatments for that,” Gilja said.
Claim: the company will be able to stream music directly to people’s brains
On July 19, a Twitter user asked if someone with a Neuralink implant could stream music “straight from our chips,” calling it a “great feature.” Once again, Musk replied with a simple “Yes.”
While it sounds far-fetched, neuroscientists say this feature wouldn’t differ much from existing technology. “That is very technically feasible,” says Angle of Paradromics. “The auditory pathway is very well mapped.”
Some members of the scientific community have viewed the company’s promises with caution, fearing that they may incite affected people to delay necessary procedures. “One issue that has come up over and over again is the ethics around creating false hope” around unknown deadlines, said Gilja, a UCSD professor and former Neuralink employee. “Creating hope in a patient population can be a good thing, but it can be a negative if a patient is trying to determine whether they should receive treatment.” They may believe that a better solution is in the near future, when in fact it could be years.
Musk does not claim that Neuralink can do everything. Over the years, she has ignored questions that range from the creepy (like whether it will make head transplants easier) to the mundane (like whether it will help with balance). “What will Neuralink do for the culinary arts?” asked a tweeter. Musk’s response: silence.
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