Brain-computer interface is the "black technology" in science fiction movies, through which the protagonist can control powerful machines and equipment, and can also come and go freely in the virtual world. In recent years, with the continuous development of technology, the scenes from these sci-fi movies are becoming possible.
A new breakthrough in brain-computer interface!
"Writing with the mind" becomes a reality
On April 23, the latest research results of the brain-computer interface team of Zhejiang University were released in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine (hereinafter referred to as the Second Hospital of Zhejiang University). It is understood that its latest research has realized the brain-computer interface for Chinese character writing for the first time, and successfully realized the invasive brain-computer interface to control the robotic arm to write Chinese characters.
According to Zhang Jianmin, chief physician of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, foreign teams have previously realized the writing of English letters, but Chinese characters are more difficult than English.
"The writing of Chinese characters has a lot of attention to the side, radicals, stroke order, etc., and even the strokes are longer or shorter, or they may be completely two words, and there will be no team abroad to study Chinese characters, we have no reference, so this is a very important part of the successful decoding of Chinese characters, and it is also a very critical breakthrough in brain-computer interface research. Zhang Jianmin said.
Qi Yu, a researcher at the Frontier Science Center for Brain and Brain-Computer Integration at Zhejiang University, told reporters that when writing each Chinese character, there are different combinations of neurons involved, which in turn produce different brain signal patterns. Through dynamic decoding of the model, researchers can capture the neurological activity of volunteers in real time, analyze the writing trajectory imagined by volunteers, and then write by controlling the robotic arm.
At present, the brain-computer interface team of Zhejiang University has broken through the special coding mechanism of Chinese character writing, and developed a new technology for decoding the writing trajectory of Chinese characters on this basis, which has achieved a classification accuracy rate of 91.3% for 100 commonly used Chinese characters offline and 96.2% with the assistance of language models.
How can BCIs benefit patients through applications?
The breakthrough of brain-controlled Chinese character writing technology is inseparable from the exploration of invasive brain-computer interfaces by scientific researchers. What is the difference between an invasive BCI and a normal BCI, and is it already used in clinical treatment?
Invasive brain-computer interfaces are the implantation of electrodes into a person's cerebral cortex, allowing a direct connection between the machine and the brain. Compared to non-invasive brain-computer interfaces, invasive brain-computer interfaces can capture the firing activity of individual neurons with greater accuracy, but at the risk of causing brain damage. The neurosurgeons were involved and led by this study, which can effectively control the safety risks caused by the electrodes implanted in the brain.
At present, brain-computer interfaces have achieved breakthrough results in the treatment of refractory epilepsy. According to Zhu Junming, chief physician of the Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, epilepsy is an episodic disease, and there is almost no difference between non-seizures and normal people. Once the seizure occurs, there will be a characteristic discharge in the patient's brain, and the machine monitors this characteristic discharge for 24 hours, and once there is a discharge, it will give a reactive stimulation in time, so as to eliminate epilepsy in the bud and achieve the purpose of treatment.
In addition to refractory epilepsy, brain-computer interfaces also have new applications in the treatment of depression.
Zhang Jianmin, chief physician of the Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, told reporters that traditional depression is treated with drugs, but about 30% of the drug treatment effects are not very ideal. A few years ago, Hu Hailan's team at Zhejiang University discovered that the lateral nucleus in the brain is a very important target in the development of depression. Therefore, they did a case to improve the patient's symptoms by neuromodulatory stimulation of the lateral brucus. After more than two years of follow-up and observation, it was confirmed that this type of deep brain stimulation surgery has a very good therapeutic effect on this patient.
Advances in brain-computer interface technology can provide new means and treatments for a variety of difficult and complex neurological diseases. With the advancement of the China Brain Program, people have gradually gained a deeper understanding of the pathological mechanism of brain diseases, and in the future, brain-computer interfaces will be added to the clinical monitoring, diagnosis and evaluation treatment process to achieve precise treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases.
(Source: CCTV News)