Elon Musk’s Neuralink Shows Off Advances to Brain-Computer Interface
Elon Musk’s Neuralink Shows Off Advances to
Brain-Computer Interface
Company putting together submission to the FDA to start testing the technology in humans
Elon
Musk and top-level scientists from his neuroscience startup Neuralink Corp.,
who are developing a next-generation brain-computer interface, unveiled what
they billed as a significant advance toward a therapeutic device Tuesday night.
The
device would connect human brains and machines with more precision than other
available devices, according to the company, which has been developing the
technology for roughly two years. Neuralink is putting together a submission to
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start testing the technology in
humans. The goal is to use the platform to treat neurological conditions like
movement disorders, spinal-cord injury and blindness.
“It’s
not like suddenly Neuralink will have this neural lace and take over people’s
brain,” said Mr. Musk. He also mentioned the announcement was meant to recruit
talent to the company, which has about 100 employees.
The
company said it is first focusing on patients with severe neurological
conditions, but wants to make it safe enough to turn the implantation surgery
into an elective procedure, like Lasik..
“We hope we’re less than a
year from the first safety study on the order of five patients,” said Neuralink
President Max Hodak in an interview. He emphasized that it could take years
before the device could help a range of patients. “The road is long,” he said.
Among
the most important tests: showing they can monitor brain activity and then
decode it, meaning they can correlate certain patterns of activity to actions,
such as movement, vision or speech. The
company didn’t specify what behavioral experiments were performed or how
reliably they were able to translate brain activity into smooth,
well-controlled movement.
The
device has been tested on monkeys, according to Mr. Musk. The primate was able
to control a computer with its brain, he said in a surprise announcement during
a question and answer session. He didn’t provide any other details. A company
spokeswoman confirmed the experiment had been done.
Neuralink
is one of several companies, including Facebook Inc., Kernel,
CTRL-Labs and Paradromics Inc., trying to build neural interfaces for
clinical and nonclinical applications. In recent years, neurotechnology
development has been spurred by public and private investment,
including the U.S. Brain Initiative, which was started by the Obama administration
in 2013.
The
goal of many of these projects is to access as many neurons as possible because
that would give scientists more precise reads on activity that underpins
walking, speech and mood, among other brain functions. They can then turn
neural recordings into electrical signals that can be fed into a robotic device
or back into the nervous system to produce movement or vision to help patients,
according to experts.
At the
event Tuesday in San Francisco, Neuralink described a tiny probe with nearly
3,100 electrodes laid out across about 100 flexible wires, or threads, each
individually inserted into rat brains by a custom-made surgical robot. The
device can monitor the activity of upward of 1,000 neurons at a time, according
to the company.
The
sewing-machine-like robot can target very specific brain areas, helping
surgeons avoid major blood vessels—an important consideration for minimizing
inflammation and long-term damage, according to a paper from the company. Data
were processed and analyzed by proprietary chips and software.
Neuroscientists
and neurotechnologists said that a platform that can insert tiny electrodes
robotically throughout the brain and then analyze activity with custom software
is exciting, but cautioned it is too early to tell how quickly Neuralink’s
device could safely be used in patients.
After a surgeon opens the skull, a ‘sewing machine’
inserts fine and flexible electrodes into the brain.
1
Once inserted in the rat brain, readings can be
taken for electric activity at each node.
2
Neural signals
“If
you’re trying to walk yourself toward human prosthetics, this is a more
promising direction than currently available technology,” said Tim Harris, a
senior fellow at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus
and a developer of research-grade neural interfaces. Among the questions that
are left unanswered by the company’s paper, he said, is how long it lasts in
the brain.
“If
you’re going to do this for people, you should be aiming for at least five
years, minimum,” he said. “To do an implantation surgery of this level of
intricacy, a year or two is not enough.”
The
paper, which wasn’t peer-reviewed, didn’t include data on the long-term stability
of recorded neural signals nor the brain’s inflammatory response.
“That
is utterly critical” before any device can advance to human trials, said Loren
Frank, a University of California, San Francisco neuroscientist developing
brain-computer interfaces.
Neuralink
has said it is doing those experiments but isn’t ready to make the data public.
The
device, in theory, was designed to also stimulate brain cells, but “we have not
demonstrated these capabilities here,” according to the paper. Direct brain stimulation
with implanted electrodes is a longstanding approach to treating movement
disorders and epilepsy. Most brain-computer interfaces are so-called
open-looped systems that don’t adapt to a patient’s needs and experience.
Neurosurgeons and technologists have pointed to that drawback as reason why
brain stimulation hasn’t worked for treating mood disorders.
The
advantage of a system like Neuralink envisions would be its ability to analyze
recordings using machine learning and to adapt the type of stimulation it
delivers to a patient’s brain, according to the company and other experts.
Because
of Mr. Musk, Neuralink has perhaps the highest profile among startups
developing brain-computer interface technology.
But in
the past couple of years, nearly all startups in the sector have seen a
considerable boost in investor and regulator interest. Since 2016, startups
including Paradromics and CTRL Labs have collectively raised around $260
million from a mix of venture capital, grants and corporate investors. In
February, the FDA released guidelines for regulating
brain-computer interface technology, in hopes of spurring faster
development of devices.
Dolby
Family Ventures managing director David Dolby, whose firm has backed
Paradromics, said as regulators are involved and more startups emerge, the time
is right for the private sector to push brain-computer interface technology
into the next stages of commercialization.
“There
are a multitude of applications for this technology. Through open market
competition, I think we will learn a lot and benefit as a society,” said Mr.
Dolby.
Not
all neurotech investors are convinced implantable devices are the way forward. Lux Capital co-founder and managing
partner Joshua Wolfe is in investor in CTRL Labs, which is developing
sensor-based technology to decode nerve signals, but said he isn’t yet
comfortable with invasive devices such as those developed by Neuralink and
Paradromics.
“There is no way I’m thinking
about technology that involves drilling holes behind ears right now,” said Mr.
Wolfe.
Enke
Bashllari, a neuroscientist by training who now heads venture-capital firm
Arkitekt Ventures, agreed there are considerable safety measures that must be
ensured with implantable technology and said she believes that noninvasive
devices also have a valuable role to play in augmenting human movement or
cognitive performance. But she said the highest unmet medical needs will
require technology that goes inside.
“It
has to allow for two main things—high spatial resolution and high bandwidth. It
has to interface with millions of neurons at the same time and you need to know
exactly which neuron is firing,” she said. “That can currently only be done
invasively.”opyright ©2019 Dow
Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Appeared in the July 17, 2019,
print edition as 'Brain-Computer Interface Unveiled.'
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