A man with Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as ALS, is the tenth person to receive a brain chip that allows him to take control of his life using only his mind.
Mark, 67, was diagnosed in 2020 and has slowly been losing his physical abilities, such as accessing his phone or feeding himself, but that will soon change after receiving the Synchron brain-computer interface (BCI) in August. past.
ALS is a disease that causes nerve cells to deteriorate, leading to muscle weakness and reduced dexterity until the person is eventually paralyzed; The entire process can last two to five years and there is no cure.
Mark can now send health notifications or pain reports to his provider simply because the BIC reads his brain waves and translates them into actions taken on a computer.
Soon you will be able to use your thoughts for more interesting tasks. how to turn on Netflix and texting family and friends.
ALS victim Mark received a Synchron brain chip implant to help him control a computer with his mind
Mark was diagnosed with ALS in 2020 and has already lost much of his motor functions, including the ability to access his phone or feed himself.
Mark went into the trial feeling like it was a “no brainer” for him.
“I thought I had two options: I could sink into self-pity or I could get up and do what I could to help,” he said. cnn.
Stentrode is known as the least invasive brain chip on the market, competing with Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip, which received FDA approval in May of last year and was just implanted in the first human in January.
Synchron received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct human trials of the permanent implantable device in 2021.
Mark, who has two daughters and a granddaughter, works as a florist with He plans to retire soon and continued lifting buckets of water and boxes of flowers until his muscles began to weaken and it became too difficult to continue.
Two years after his diagnosis, driving became too difficult and he eventually moved in with his brother and his brother’s family, mourning the loss of his independence.
“It was a hard pill to swallow,” Mark said. “I still consider myself young.”
He continued: “I lived alone for 13 years, so I was used to doing everything by myself.”
Although Mark has lost much of his dexterity, such as holding a pencil or scrolling on a phone, he can still speak, but that can change over time.
In addition to sending health-related notes, you can tap a ping-pong type video game, in which you have to concentrate intensely to move the bar and relax your mind to prevent it from moving.
In 2021, Musk launched a video showing a monkey implanted with a Neuralink chip doing the same thing.
The brain chip is implanted through the neck and a separate device is inserted into the chest cavity to transmit thoughts to a computer.
The brain chip, called Stentrode, is inserted into the motor cortex, where it can decipher brain waves associated with certain cognitive functions.
The brain chip, about the size of a paper clip, is implanted in the brain’s motor cortex, which generates signals to direct body movement.
Implantation requires a “minimally invasive” procedure that involves a small “keyhole” incision in the neck, similar to inserting stents into the heart.
Once in place, it expands to press the electrodes against the vessel wall near the brain, where it can record neural signals.
A separate transmitter, similar to a pacemaker, is surgically placed in the chest cavity and receives signals from the BCI when it recognizes an intended movement, such as clicking somewhere on a computer screen.
The person has to be connected to the computer for it to pick up the signal, but researchers hope that eventually the device can connect via a wireless signal.
It took Mark two months to recover from the chip implantation before the Synchron team could power it on, but it still took another month before the device worked.
“There was some applause,” Mark told CNN. “We had been trying and trying, and it wasn’t working so well, and it finally worked.”
The Stentrode works by identifying what each electrical signature is, functioning as a dictionary, to decipher the person’s intention so they can carry out the function.
The BCI can’t work at full capacity right away, but it needs to become familiar with Mark’s specific brain waves that control his mobility.
Brain waves are connected to every physical function you have, whether it’s shaking hands, taking a step, or reading a book, there is an electrical signature that connects thought and action.
The Stentrode works by identifying what each electrical signature is, functioning as a dictionary, to decipher the person’s intention so they can carry out the function.
Mark told CNN that part of being a test subject means he has to be patient, adding, “Sometimes it doesn’t work out the way we want.”
However, “part of participating in a study is that we are here to learn, we are here to promote the technology,” he continued.
Mark’s current journey with Synchron accompanies the growing list of people who are testing brain chip implants to help them overcome crippling illnesses.
Researchers at Stanford University conducted a study on ALS victim Pat Bennett, who had lost the ability to speak eight years earlier.
The study, published by Nature, did not specify which brain chip Bennett tested, but said it was capable of communicating at a speed of 62 words per minute, three times faster than previous records, with 75 percent accuracy.
But not everyone is excited about the idea of implanting a chip in their brain, according to a 2021 Pew Research Center. survey which asked Americans if they supported the devices if they would allow people to “process information more quickly and accurately.”
Although more than half of American adults surveyed said it would be bad for society if such a device existed, an overwhelming majority (77 percent) said they would be in favor of brain chips if they helped paralyzed people.
“Neurotechnology is advancing at breakneck speed,” said António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, at a press conference. international conference on ethics of neurotechnology in July.
‘This progress is cause for celebration and caution. We must safeguard ethical standards and ensure the full protection of human rights.’
The UN meeting came on the heels of Musk’s Neuralink chip receiving FDA approval to replace a piece of the skull with the brain chip, a much more invasive method than Synchron’s Stentrode.
The first human received a Neuralink chip implant last month, and Musk reported that initial results showed a promising increase in neuron detection.
Musk said the patient could move a mouse around the screen using only his thoughts and he hopes the device will expand to eventually allow people to control a computer through thought.
Experts expressed that it would be good for numerous companies to work to improve BCI technology, citing the need for different brain chips to support different functions.
“Everyone is a little different,” Oxley told CNN, adding that, ultimately, “competition is good.”
As a result of the arms race to create better BCIs, he said we will likely see many “different types of technologies for different use cases.”