A brief background of the important news
On January 30, Elon Musk, founder of brain-computer interface technology company Neuralink, announced on the social media platform "X" that they had completed the first brain-computer interface chip implantation operation, and the implanter was recovering well.
Neuralink's first brain-computer interface product, called Telepathy, was a coin-sized chip-implanted device. It is said that after the brain is implanted with a device, it can control mobile phones and computers just by using their minds. The core principle is to use probes to detect spikes in neuronal firing in the brain, and then process these spikes to interpret user intent.
The following is a review of Wang Yuquan's important news today:
Recently, Musk's new progress in Neuralink has been swiped, and many people are retweeting it, feeling like a milestone event. This matter has a certain progressive significance, but the progressive significance is not as great as everyone thinks.
The so-called brain-computer interface is to add several electrodes to the brain, so as to receive the electrical impulses generated by the brain's thinking, and interpret the brain's thinking, which has actually been done in several cases.
When the World Cup started, there was a paralyzed man who manipulated the exoskeleton to enter the field to kick the ball, and it was also an exoskeleton manipulated by his mind.
So it's not about making much progress in scientific principles, it's about engineering and making it into a coin-sized, highly integrated implantable unit.
However, this matter is still very far from mass listing, and the reason is very simple, the risk of implanting brain-computer interfaces is still relatively large.
There are two reasons, one may not be known to everyone. The outside of our brain is a hard shell, and there is a layer of meninges inside the skull, and when it enters, it is gray matter and white matter.
The brain doesn't have any immune system, it's like a very nutrient-rich medium, without any antibiotics. The implication is that no matter what kind of bacteria they are, they will grow wildly in the brain.
In other words, craniotomy surgery cannot be done easily, and once there is any pollution, it will bring disaster.
The second is that brain-computer interfaces have not completely solved a problem so far. It is necessary to use probes to sensitively perceive the electrical impulses generated by neurons.
When the probe is inserted into the brain, it produces a scar body, which is something like a scar around the probe. The scar itself has some insulation, and there is uncertainty about whether it will cause the sensitivity of the probe to decrease, or whether it will cause damage to our brain.
Therefore, implantation is only the first step in a long journey. It may take several years of observation to see whether there is a risk of infection, whether there is a scar, whether there is a decrease in sensitivity, and other comprehensive questions before it can be said that this matter can be successful.
Although they did not say it explicitly, we believe that the patient involved in the test should be a patient with total paralysis. The reason is very simple, such a case by case of clinical trial is not a product that has been declared and approved by the FDA and then marketed, but is a pre-market clinical trial.
If he has been bedridden for many years and is paralyzed, and would rather risk losing his life in order to gain some mobility, it is ethically acceptable, and it is easier to apply for a clinical trial in such extreme cases.
But to pass the phase I, phase II, phase III clinical trials, and finally FDA approval, this time will be very long. Frankly, it should be at least five years or more, or even at least ten years, before it can be approved.
Moreover, the approval will also be limited to a very narrow range, that is, patients who are paralyzed all over the body, or even paralyzed for a certain period of time, may be allowed to use this technology, because the risk is still quite high.
On the one hand, we know that there is progress, but it is important to understand that it is not a scientific progress, but a technological advance. On the other hand, this progress is still 108,000 miles away from bringing a product to market for everyone.
Of course, we think this is still meaningful, because there are still a lot of paralyzed people in the crowd, and if we can use this technology to achieve a certain sense of self-care and a certain sense of athletic ability, then of course it is a great thing, but we should not be over-promoted.
Let's talk a little bit about brain-computer interfaces. This idea has its merits, and it can make a certain interpretation of some people's thinking, but it is still limited to note that this interpretation is still limited.
Because the surface of our brain is useful, some places are responsible for sight, some places are for hearing, and some places are for touch. If only a small piece of brain-computer interface the size of a coin is implanted, the range of neural motion that can be perceived is still limited. It's more about guessing some of his intentions than about reading all the thoughts of the brain in its entirety.
It's like I want to understand how a computer actually works, but there is no need to implant a lot of probes on the surface of the chip. If we look at a series of output and input changes, we can roughly restore the algorithm.
In fact, the human brain is the same, the brain is equivalent to the hard disk of a computer, and we have a lot of external nerves that can systematically input data into it. The eyes, ears, nose and tongue are all sensory neurons, which are converted into electrical stimulation after receiving stimulation, and then sent through the nerves, and the brain restores a lifelike world based on these stimuli.
The technology we invested in Weikan Technology uses a technology called "tongue slice". The tongue piece has 400 points of nerve stimulation and is placed on the tongue. After the nerve stimulation enters, it will be transmitted to the visual area of the brain for processing, and it will be able to have a visual understanding of the outside world.
Theoretically, it can also encode hearing, smell, and taste, and it will also be transmitted to the corresponding area for processing. In other words, we don't have to open the brain to roughly guess how the brain works.
Therefore, a really good brain-computer interface is non-invasive, and it is connected to the external communication system that the brain has formed, and you can know how the brain operates.
To sum it up briefly, Musk is amazing, he has taken a step forward in engineering, and maybe it will be clinically approved in ten years, but the long-term goal is still to paralyzed people, and the future of non-implantable brain-computer interfaces is the biggest opportunity.
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