The first brain-computer wireless interface (BCI) system not only provides people with paralysis the ability to write on computer screens with the mind, but innovation also gives them the freedom to do so in anywhere.
Traditional BCIs are connected to a large transmitter with long cables, but a team at Brown University has cut the cables and replaced them with a small transmitter located on the user’s head.
The redesigned equipment is only two inches in diameter and is connected to a set of electrodes within the motor cortex of the brain through the same port used by wired systems.
The trials, called BrainGate, showed that two men paralyzed by spinal cord injuries were able to type and click on a tablet just thinking about the action, and they did so with similar point-and-click accuracy and shooting speeds. writing similar to those of wired systems.
A participant in the BrainGate clinical trial uses wireless transmitters that replace the cables that are normally used to transmit sensor signals inside the brain. The trials allowed men with spinal cord injuries to write and click on a tablet just thinking about the action.
The innovation is similar to BCI’s Neuralink Elon Musk, which is also a wireless device implanted in the brain.
However, Musk’s technology is not as visible as BrainGate, but has only been tested on monkeys and pigs; BrainGate is the first to successfully test humans.
John Simeral, assistant professor of engineering at Brown University, a member of the BrainGate research consortium and lead author of the study, said: “We have shown that this wireless system is functionally equivalent to the wired systems that have been the gold standard in BCI Performance for years “.
“Signals are recorded and transmitted with a fairly similar fidelity, which means we can use the same decoding algorithms we used with wired equipment.
The redesigned equipment is only two inches in diameter and is connected to a set of electrodes within the motor cortex of the brain through the same port used by wired systems.
The innovation is similar to BCI’s Neuralink (pictured) Elon Musk, which is also a wireless device implanted in the brain. However, Musk’s technology is not as visible as BrainGate, but has only been tested on monkeys and pigs.
“The only difference is that people no longer need to be physically connected to our computer, which opens up new possibilities as to how the system can be used.”
Among the participants in the trial were a 35-year-old man and a 63-year-old man paralyzed by spinal cord injuries.
Everyone was able to use the BCI at home, compared to the previous work that had to be done in a lab.
Without cable problems, participants were able to use the BCI continuously for up to 24 hours, providing researchers with long-term data, even while participants slept.
Leigh Hochberg, a professor of engineering at Brown, a researcher at Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science and leader of the BrainGate clinical trial, said, “We want to understand how neural signals evolve over time.”
“With this system, we can see brain activity at home for long periods of time in a way that was previously almost impossible.
Without cable problems, participants were able to use the BCI continuously for up to 24 hours, providing researchers with long-term data, even while participants slept. The image shows an earlier version of the BCI that included a long cable
“This will help us design decoding algorithms that allow for the restoration of seamless, intuitive and reliable communication and mobility of people with paralysis.”
The latest study is based on the researcher’s initial BrainGate trials that began in 2012, but used a wired system to allow participants to manipulate prostheses thinking about a specific movement.
This work has been followed by a steady stream of system refinements, as well as new clinical advances that have allowed people to type on computers, use tablet applications, and even move their own paralyzed limbs.
The study’s co-author, Sharlene Flesher, who was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford and is now a hardware engineer at Apple, said: “The evolution of intracortical BCIs from requiring a cable to using a wireless transmitter in miniature is an important step towards the functional use of fully implanted high-performance neural interfaces, ‘
“As the field moves toward reducing transmitted bandwidth while preserving the accuracy of assistive device control, this study may be one of the few that captures the full range of cortical signals during extended periods of time, including during the practical use of BCI “