Musk's plan to control the human brain has taken another step forward. Westlake University has developed a 1 square millimeter neural chip. Are you ready to install a chip in your brain?

The girl, with only her brain intact, was revived with full blood after the doctor installed a mechanical body on her.

The sci-fi movie "Alita: Battle Angel" depicts a future world where human-machine fusion has become a daily routine. Those cyborgs of various shapes and sizes have machine bodies and human brains connected by brain-machine interfaces.

This is another way in which humans and machines get along with each other in human imagination, and like artificial intelligence, it is about to open a new chapter.

"The accumulation of underlying technologies for brain-computer interfaces has reached a critical point and may explode in the next five to six years." At the Advanced Neural Chip Center founded by Westlake University Chair Professor Mohammed Sawan, associate researcher Yang Jie told reporters from Orange Persimmon Interactive that in the near future, many patients may be able to use brain-computer interface technology to treat various diseases, such as high paraplegia, aphasia, epilepsy...

Not long ago, the world's first non-human primate interventional brain-computer interface experiment was successfully completed in Beijing; recently, Musk's company Neuralink announced that it has obtained FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) approval and is about to start human clinical trials...

What is a brain-computer interface?

Brain-computer interface, as the name implies, is to establish a connection path and control channel between the human brain and external devices. The brain processes information by transmitting electrical signals between neurons, and the basic principle of brain-computer interface is to read or write such electrical signals to control the machine or affect the brain.

The original story of brain-computer interface took place in a laboratory in 1924. German psychiatrist Hans Berg collected EEG signals in the human brain for the first time.

It was not until 1973 that Jacques Vidal, a computer scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, proposed the concept and idea of ​​brain-computer interface, opening up a new world of human brain and behavior control.

In front of the promotional display board in the corridor of the Advanced Neurochip Center, Yang Jie explained that according to different technical routes, brain-computer interfaces can be mainly divided into two categories: invasive and non-invasive. The former is to open the skull through surgery and implant the device into the brain, while the latter is to cover the device like a hat on the head. In fact, there is also an invasive type, which is between the two, in which the device is sent into the brain through blood vessels. The former two are more common.

Generally speaking, the deeper and closer to the brain tissue, the clearer and more accurate the EEG signal is, which is the advantage of invasive brain-computer interfaces. However, foreign objects invading the brain can easily cause an immune response, and the human body may generate scar tissue between the electrodes and the nerve tissue, causing the signal transmission to attenuate or even disappear.

Different technical routes seek a balance between accuracy and safety. Relatively speaking, the R&D risk of invasive brain-computer interfaces is greater, and the technical requirements and funding thresholds are also higher.

After 7 years of financing and $356 million, the company finally reached the “human brain”

In the past two years, many people have heard news about "brain-computer interface", mostly from a company called Neuralink. One of the main reasons why it has attracted so much attention is that its boss is Musk.

This star company, founded in California in 2016, focuses on the research of invasive brain-computer interface chips and implant technologies, and carries Musk's grand goal of transforming the human brain.

From 2019 to now, Neuralink's brain-computer interface experimental subjects have evolved from mice to piglets, and then to monkeys, step by step approaching the human body. In the demonstration in August 2020, Musk released the N1 wireless chip, which supports up to 1024 channels of electrodes (on May 31 this year, they demonstrated the next-generation model - the number of channels is more than 16,000). After the N1 was implanted in the cerebral cortex of the experimental piglet, people successfully predicted its movement trajectory by capturing the current generated by the brain-computer interface. Last December, Musk once again showed the public a video of a monkey controlling a mouse and keyboard typing through his mind.

The N1 chip reads the piglet's brain waves

Monkeys typing with their minds

After being investigated for suspected animal abuse and having the safety of brain implant device trials questioned, Neuralink finally obtained FDA approval to conduct human clinical trials on May 26 this year, but has not yet begun recruiting patient volunteers.

The company's estimated valuation then quickly grew to around US$5 billion, and it has raised a total of US$356 million in seven years.

Neuralink is not the first company to implant a brain-computer interface device in the human body. In 2021, Synchron's vascular stent electrode was approved by the FDA to begin human trials, and in July 2022, it announced the completion of its first implantation. It also received investment from Max Hodak, one of Neuralink's co-founders, after he went solo, and Bill Gates and Bezos were also among its investors.

The reason why the FDA has relaxed its approval for clinical trials of brain-computer interfaces is mainly based on the rapid development of artificial intelligence in recent years. In addition to collecting EEG signals, another core issue of brain-computer interfaces is interpreting EEG signals, and AI can interpret them through machine learning algorithms and EEG signal data training.

From treating brain diseases to the "human transformation project"

Many people should still remember this news: In 2020, Zhejiang University and the Department of Neurosurgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine jointly announced that they had completed the country's first clinical trial of an implantable brain-computer interface for a 72-year-old man who had been paralyzed in all four limbs for many years, enabling him to do some simple "actions" through his thoughts, such as drinking Coke, eating fried dough sticks, etc.

Just last month, a Dutch man who had been paralyzed for 12 years due to a car accident successfully controlled his legs and walked again by implanting a brain-computer interface device in his brain and spine.

At present, the testing and application areas of invasive brain-computer interfaces are mainly in medical fields.

"Various brain diseases will last throughout a person's life cycle. Autism, depression, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease... many cannot be completely treated with drugs. One of the most important applications of brain-computer interfaces is the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases."

Yang Jie cited the examples of scientific research projects currently being carried out by the center: "For example, in patients with epilepsy, implanted chips can monitor brain signals in real time. When an epileptic seizure is about to occur, the brain will show unique discharge characteristics. The chip detects these characteristics and then gives the patient's brain an electrical stimulus to put out the fire before it starts." Monitoring the activity of neural signals is considered a reliable means of predicting neurological diseases.

As early as 2019, a team of more than a dozen people in their center has been focusing on one thing: developing integrated chips for neural signal acquisition, processing and stimulation.

Traditional medical devices for Parkinson's disease treatment are effective but large in size, difficult to use, and risky to operate. Yang Jie's latest research and development is to integrate all functions into a chip of a few square millimeters or even smaller. "It can be directly embedded in the patient's skull, causing less damage and lower power consumption."

The second largest application area of ​​brain-computer interfaces in medicine is the rehabilitation of impaired functions. By identifying the patient's intentions through brain signals, patients with spinal cord injuries, strokes, etc. can regain their lost mobility, language ability, and perception (vision, hearing, etc.). In this regard, the Advanced Neurochip Center is also conducting research in cooperation with hospitals.

The paralyzed can "move" and the blind can "regain" their sight. This is also what Musk believes Neuralink can do for humans at its earliest application and help. In the company's view, even for people who are born blind, the visual part of the cerebral cortex still exists.

In addition to helping patients improve their lives, brain-computer interfaces can also be used in entertainment, commerce, industry and other fields. For example, BrainCo, located in Yuhang, has adopted a non-invasive approach to its products, which have covered various fields such as rehabilitation, education, health, and consumption. It is also the only brain-computer interface company in the world, other than Neuralink, that has raised over $200 million.

In the longer term, brain-computer interface is expected to become the next generation of human-computer interaction technology. The interaction between humans and machines now uses keyboards, mice, and touch screens. The ideal state in the future is that the human brain directly controls external things. In Musk's ultimate vision, digital immortality and the symbiosis of humans and AI will not be a problem, and the human brain will become more powerful, ultimately realizing the "human transformation plan."

Legal and ethical dilemmas awaiting discussion

When will brain-computer interface technology be widely used? This is perhaps a question that more "meat eaters" like you and me would like to know.

Kip Ludwig, former director of the National Institutes of Health's neuroengineering program, predicts that it may take several years for Neuralink to obtain a license for commercial use, and at least another 10 years to commercialize brain chip implants. The relevant clinical trials themselves will take many years to complete.

Despite this, Musk's achievements in Tesla, space exploration, and other fields still make the industry and the public have richer associations and expectations about the commercial prospects of brain-computer interfaces.

According to the data from Data Bridge Market Research, a research organization, the brain-computer interface market size will be US$1.74 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach US$5.692 billion by 2030. In 2023-2024, many leading companies will enter the clinical stage, which will also be a key year for brain-computer interfaces to enter the commercial market.

In Yang Jie's opinion, China's brain-computer interface technology has developed rapidly in recent years, and many related companies have emerged. "Compared with foreign countries, although there are still some gaps in various aspects, there is no generation gap." However, at this stage, making a hole in the head is still a headache for many people.

"There are definitely psychological barriers. Therefore, the application of invasive brain-computer interfaces will first start with the treatment of diseases, terminal illnesses (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, locked-in syndrome, etc.), serious illnesses (high paraplegia, etc.), and finally move towards the consumer field. This is what we think is a development path." He revealed that the project that the center is currently carrying out with its partner hospitals is expected to benefit more related patients in the next five to six years.

There are also legal and ethical dilemmas ahead. If brain-computer interface devices are used on a large scale, who will own our brain waves? Who has the right to read and write? After "opening" our brains, will we be controlled by the outside world? After the brain mechanism is interfered with, who can be sure that the parties themselves can be responsible for the consequences? When brain-computer interface technology is used to transform the human brain and empower humans in the future, will a new digital divide arise for ordinary people who do not have "plug-ins"?

Various questions and controversies are waiting to be explored and answered.

On May 29, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that it will take brain-computer interface as an important direction for cultivating future industrial development, strengthen the exploration of brain-computer interface application scenarios, and accelerate the development of the brain-computer interface industry.

On the same day, China's first "Ethical Principles and Governance Recommendations for Brain-Computer Interfaces" was released. The recommendation believes that the potential ethical risks of brain-computer interfaces include: safety risks of neural intervention, risks of non-autonomous decision-making, risks of brain privacy leakage, issues of responsibility attribution, issues of identity recognition, issues of human enhancement, issues of distribution justice, etc. It hopes to arouse more relevant parties to pay attention to brain-computer interfaces and actively participate in ethical co-governance.

Tong Wei, reporter of Chengshi Interactive and Metropolis Express