"North Brain No. 2" achieved a breakthrough: the monkey got the strawberry with his mind

A thin film with soft filaments held in the monkey's skull allows the monkey to control the robotic arm to grasp the strawberries without using his hands and only with his "mind". At the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum, which opened on April 25, the major achievements of the "Beibrain No. 2" brain-computer interface independently developed by the Beijing Institute of Brain Science and Brain-like Research and Beijing Xinzhida Neurotechnology Co., Ltd. were officially unveiled, filling the gap of high-performance invasive brain-computer interface technology in China.

According to the R&D team, this is the first time in the world that a macaque has achieved dexterous brain-controlled interception of a two-dimensional moving cursor. As early as 2021, Neuralink, a brain-computer interface company founded by Elon Musk, has shown a video of monkeys operating a joystick with their minds.

Cutting-edge technology of human-machine hybrid intelligence

As the "information highway" for the brain to communicate with external devices, brain-computer interface technology is the cutting-edge technology of a new generation of human-computer interaction and human-computer hybrid intelligence. Luo Minmin, director of the Beijing Institute of Brain Science and Brain-like Research, explained: "To put it simply, brain-computer interface is to capture the subtle changes in the brain's electrical signals, decode the brain's intentions, and realize the 'mind' to control the 'action', and control the machine in the air without using the hands." ”

He further explained that the core of determining the performance of brain-computer interfaces lies in the clarity of EEG signal capture and the accuracy of translation. "The former relies on electrodes, and the latter relies on algorithms. Luo Minmin said, "The brain-computer interface competition is safe, stable and effective, which is a systematic project, and the key technology needs to be further breakthroughs." ”

"Beinao-2" is equipped with high-throughput flexible microwire electrodes, which are equivalent to a "sensor", which can read EEG signals through intracerebral implantation, and its performance determines the quantity and quality of brain signals captured.

Li Yuan, business development director of Beijing Xinzhida Neurotechnology Co., Ltd., said that the effective channel number and long-term stability of the "Beinao No. 2" flexible electrode have reached the international leading level. Unlike rigid electrodes, flexible microwire electrodes can still accurately collect EEG signals after one year of implantation in the macaque brain.

In addition, Beinao-2 is also equipped with a thousand-channel high-speed neural signal acquisition equipment and a generative neural decoding algorithm based on a feedforward control strategy. The algorithm acts as a "translator", which can accurately interpret the brain's intentions and establish a precise mapping between neural activity and motor parameters in the cerebral cortex.

According to reports, the "North Brain No. 2" system has been stably implanted in the skull of monkeys for nearly a year, and for the first time in the world, the brain-controlled interception of two-dimensional moving targets by macaques through mind control has been realized, which has solved the international frontier problem of long-term stable recording and real-time decoding of large-scale single-cell signals, and the key indicators of electrode performance are internationally leading.

Li Yuan told the first financial reporter that at present, about 10 monkey tests have been carried out on the "North Brain No. 2" to test different electrodes and carry out different motion decoding tasks.

Luo Minmin told the first financial reporter that human trials are currently being prepared, including the screening of patients. "Movement disorders are the main direction of attack. He said.

Brain-computer interface is a highland of scientific and technological competition in the field of brain science and brain-like research in developed countries, which requires the integration of complex systems across multiple disciplines, the upstream and downstream links of the industry are long, and the research and development process involves electrodes, chips, data, algorithms, analysis software, biocompatible materials and other links.

Facing the international frontier development trend of brain-computer interface, a number of scientific research teams in China are working on brain-computer interface devices with different technical paths, including invasive, semi-invasive and non-invasive technologies.

In 2023, Beijing Xinzhida Neurotechnology Co., Ltd. was established, focusing on the research and development of brain-computer interface and clinical transformation application, developing core components of brain-computer interface for the international frontier, developing neural decoding algorithms, multi-dimensional overall system integration, and developing products for clinical applications and other scenarios for commercial transformation.

The previous generation of "Bei Brain No. 2", "Bei Brain No. 1", focused on semi-invasive collection of cerebral cortical electrical signals, and has also entered clinical research.

Luo Minmin stressed to the first financial reporter that the development of brain-computer interface in mainland China still has a long way to go, and although some progress has been made, it is still necessary to face up to the gap with the real "world-class".

Face up to the gap between China and abroad

In recent years, China has developed rapidly in the field of brain-computer interface, and the results have been continuous. On January 29 this year, the brain-computer interface was written into the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Innovation and Development of Future Industries" jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology and other seven departments. The document focuses on the industry of the future and clearly proposes to strengthen the research and development of quantum computers, brain-computer interfaces, new displays, and 6G network equipment.

With the support of policies, a number of industrialization-oriented brain-computer interface innovation enterprises have emerged in China. For example, Brain Tiger Technology, Boruikang, Strong Brain Technology, etc.

Brain Tiger Technology said that in the first half of last year, it completed 3 implantation surgeries in the clinic, and realized the functions of single neuron Spike signal recording, Chinese language decoding and synthesis, and real-time positioning of the patient's intraoperative language area, which can guide surgeons to accurately remove brain lesions while preserving the patient's important brain function.

On January 31 this year, the official website of Tsinghua University announced that the team of Tsinghua University and Xuanwu Hospital successfully conducted the first clinical trial of wireless minimally invasive brain-computer interface. According to reports, a quadriplegic 14 years of high paraplegia patients were discharged after 10 days of implantation, after three months of home rehabilitation training, the patient can drive pneumatic gloves through EEG activities to achieve brain control functions such as drinking water independently, with a grasp accuracy rate of more than 90%.

The first financial reporter learned that Boruikang is the brain-computer interface industrialization company behind the Tsinghua team. In December 2022, the company received hundreds of millions of dollars in Series C financing.

In the financing news of Boruikang in 2022, Professor Hong Bo of Tsinghua Medical School once commented on the company: "At present, the performance of Boruikang's EEG equipment has stood at the same height as that of Japan's Optoelectronics and the United States' Natus. EEG devices are to the brain-computer interface industry what the iPhone is to the mobile phone industry, and developers can improve electrode materials and iterate software algorithms around solid hardware and operating systems. ”

However, at present, the international brain-computer interface manufacturers represented by Neuralink are still leading in terms of technology and have taken the lead in human clinical trials. On January 28 of this year, Neuralink announced that it had completed the first human brain chip implant, and the patient was recovering well, and the preliminary results showed promising detection of neuron spike potential.

In February of this year, Musk said that the patient had realized that he could control a computer mouse through his mind. Peng Lei, CEO of Brain Tiger Technology, predicted to the first financial reporter at the time that Neuralink is expected to show three main scenarios: brain-computer interface control of mobile phones and computers, control of robotic arms and language output.

In view of the future development direction of brain-computer interface, Peng Lei said that the evolution trend of brain-computer interface chips in the future must be higher and higher channel numbers, lower and lower single-channel power consumption, and stronger and stronger compression capacity of front-end signal processing.

Pu Muming, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and academic director of the Center for Excellence in Brain Intelligence of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in a recent interview with the media that the current application of brain-computer interface is mainly in the medical field, and most of the brain-computer interface clinical trials carried out by scientists around the world are for the functional recovery of patients with high paraplegia. He believes that the goal of future brain-computer interface research and development is to create a universal minimally invasive brain-computer interface platform through iterative development for the rehabilitation of more brain diseases such as epilepsy and cognitive impairment.

In addition to policy support, the development of brain-computer interfaces also requires a lot of capital support. Neuralink has now raised at least $323 million in funding, according to a filing with the SEC last November, which also values the high-profile brain-computer interface company at more than $5 billion.

In China, at present, state-owned industrial investment funds occupy a leading role in promoting the development of brain-computer interface technology. Taking Xinzhida as an example, the company is controlled by Beijing Beinao Venture Capital Fund, a subsidiary of Zhongguancun Development Group.

In terms of private capital, Tianqiao Brain Science Research Institute (TCCI) supported and funded the research and development of brain-computer interface decoding Chinese language and flexible brain-computer interface technology of the Institute of Microsystems of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the neurosurgery team of Huashan Hospital. According to the data disclosed by TCCI, as of 2023, TCCI has invested more than 1.5 billion yuan to support domestic and international brain science research, covering the complete chain from basic research to technology application transformation.

TCCI co-founder Tianqiao Chen believes that Chinese researchers can surpass Neuralink to some extent. In an interview with the first financial reporter, he said that artificial intelligence technology has played a huge role in brain-computer interface, the frontier field of brain science in recent years, and hopes that more artificial intelligence talents can join the field of brain science.

(This article is from Yicai)