Every reporter: Lin Zichen Every editor: Duan Lian, Chen Junjie
On January 30, Beijing time, "Silicon Valley Iron Man" Elon Musk posted: "Yesterday, the first human patient underwent Neuralink implantation surgery and is currently recovering well. Preliminary results show that a Spike (frontal potential) signal was acquired. ”
Just about 8 hours later, the official website of Tsinghua University released a news that the team of Tsinghua University and Xuanwu Hospital successfully conducted the first clinical trial of wireless minimally invasive brain-computer interface. According to the news, after 3 months of home brain-computer interface rehabilitation training, patients with spinal cord injury can drive pneumatic gloves through EEG activities to achieve brain control functions such as self-drinking water, with a grasping accuracy rate of more than 90%, and the ASIA clinical score and sensory evoked potential response of patients with spinal cord injury have been significantly improved.
It is worth noting that the brain-computer interface is different from the Neuralink brain-computer interface led by Musk, which is based on the electrodes placed on the epidural of the brain, developed through long-term animal experiments, and will not destroy nerve tissue. Because this kind of brain-computer interface is the result of a compromise between signal quality and landing difficulty and trauma, it seems that it is expected to be industrialized earlier than Neuralink's brain-computer interface that requires a "craniotomy".
The first patient achieved brain control functions such as self-drinking water
Grip accuracy of more than 90%
As Elon Musk's brain-computer interface company, Neuralink was founded in 2016 and focuses on the research and development of implantable brain-computer interface devices. In May last year, the FDA approved the first-in-human clinical trial of the company's brain-computer interface, and in September, the company received approval from an independent institutional review board to begin recruiting participants aged 22 and older who were paralyzed by ALS (due to spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and did not improve for at least a year after injury.
According to Musk's tweet on January 30, Neuralink performed the first human transplant of a brain-computer interface device the day before, and the transplant recipient is now recovering well, with preliminary results showing that Spike (front potential) signals were collected. Musk said the first product would be named Telepathy, and bluntly said that the team's goal was for "Hawking to communicate faster than a fast typist or auctioneer."
On the same day, a news was released on the official website of Tsinghua University, saying that the team of Tsinghua University and Xuanwu Hospital successfully conducted the first clinical trial of wireless minimally invasive brain-computer interface. According to the data, the clinical trial of the wireless minimally invasive brain-computer interface passed the ethical review of Xuanwu Hospital and Tiantan Hospital in April and May 2023 respectively, and the clinical trial registration of international and domestic implantable medical devices was carried out. On October 24 and December 19, 2023, two patients with spinal cord injury were implanted in Xuanwu Hospital and Tiantan Hospital, respectively.
However, unlike Neuralink's fully implantable wireless brain-computer interface, the wireless minimally invasive implantable brain-computer interface NEO of the domestic team places electrodes on the epidural of the brain, which is developed through long-term animal experiments and will not damage nerve tissue.
According to the press release, the first patient was a complete spinal cord injury (ASIA score A) in the cervical spine caused by a car accident and had been in quadriplegia for 14 years. The patient was discharged home 10 days after surgery. When used at home, the external computer supplies power to the internal computer through the scalp, and receives the nerve signals in the brain and transmits them to the computer or mobile phone to realize brain-computer interface communication. The system uses near-field wireless power and communication technology, and the internal machine implanted in the skull does not require batteries, and the patient can use it for a lifetime.
The first patient successfully achieved brain-controlled grasping through wireless minimally invasive brain-computer interface
Image source: Photo by Lin Yujing, School of Journalism, Tsinghua University
After three months of home BCI rehabilitation training, the patient could drive pneumatic gloves through EEG activities to achieve brain control functions such as drinking water independently, with a grasping accuracy rate of more than 90%, and the ASIA clinical score and sensory evoked potential response of the patients with spinal cord injury were significantly improved.
In addition, the second patient with spinal cord injury had normal signal reception and was undergoing home rehabilitation training.
Expert: It may be expected to achieve industrialization earlier than Musk
According to a research report by Minsheng Securities in December 2023, according to McKinsey's estimates, the potential market size of global brain-computer interface medical applications is expected to reach US$40 billion to US$145 billion from 2030 to 2040, of which the potential scale of serious medical applications is US$15 billion to US$85 billion, and the potential scale of consumer medical applications is US$25 billion to US$60 billion.
Different application scenarios are closely related to the communication technology path of brain-computer interface. At present, BCI technologies are mainly classified into three categories: "non-invasive (extra-brain)", "invasive" and "semi-invasive". Neuralink's brain-computer interface is a semi-invasive type of wireless minimally invasive brain-computer interface implanted by the team of Tsinghua University and Xuanwu Hospital, which implants a two-coin-sized brain-computer interface processor into the skull of a high paraplegic patient to collect nerve signals in the sensorimotor brain region.
In the medical scene, both invasive and semi-invasive brain-computer interfaces are useful, but for investment institutions, the difficulty of commercialization will be an important factor in the selection of investment targets, and from this perspective, the advantages of semi-invasive brain-computer interfaces are greater.
In September last year, Liu Dan, a senior investor in the medical industry, told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that although the state vigorously supports brain science and brain-computer interface related translational research, brain-computer interface has not yet been used as a medical device on a large scale in the world, and the regulatory level still maintains a relatively rigorous attitude towards the commercial application of brain-computer interface as a medical device. Under the strict requirements of supervision, it is necessary to pay attention to the selection of technical routes and targets with controllable long-term safety and good implantation convenience, and find technical solutions that are safer and more certain in clinical implementation.
Liu Dan believes that the fully implantable brain-computer interface technology path represented by Neuralink is still far from the real clinical application, facing long-term safety, clinical surgery acceptance and other problems, and it may take at least 5-10 years for commercialization, while the semi-invasive electrode is the result of a compromise between signal quality and landing difficulty and trauma, and will be the first clinical landing technology path in the future.
According to its official website, the company focuses on the clinical solution design, engineering implementation and clinical practice of medical-grade fully implantable sports brain-computer interface systems, and will complete two rounds of financing of nearly 100 million yuan in 2023.
Reporter|Lin Zichen
Editor|Duan Lian, Chen Junjie, Gai Yuanyuan
Proofreading|Cheng Peng
|National Business Daily nbdnews original article|
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