Brain implant
Researchers are also exploring a range of delivery systems, such as using veins, to deliver these implants without brain surgery; by leaving the skull sealed shut, patients could receive their neural implants without running as great a risk of seizures, strokes, or permanent neural impairments, all of which can be caused by open-brain surgery.
The "hatpin" electrodes were made of pure iridium and insulated with parylene, materials that are currently used in the cyberkinetics implementation of the Utah array.
[24][25] In 2016, scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign announced development of tiny brain sensors for use postoperative monitoring, which melt away when they are no longer needed.
[26] In 2020, scientists out of the University of Melbourne, who formed the company Synchron in 2016, published clinical data related to a discovery for Stentrode, a device implanted via the jugular vein, without the need for open brain surgery.
The shark's unique senses would then be exploited to provide data feedback in relation to enemy ship movement or underwater explosives.
Its goal, according to DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office, is to develop "tightly coupled machine-insect interfaces by placing micro-mechanical systems inside the insects during the early stages of metamorphosis".
[39] Engineers at the University of California at Berkeley pioneered the design of a "remote controlled beetle", funded by the DARPA HI-MEMS Program.
[42] In 2012, DARPA provided seed funding[44] to Dr. Thomas Oxley, a neurointerventionist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, for a technology that became known as Stentrode.
Oxley's group in Australia was the only non-US-based funded by DARPA as part of the Reliable Neural Interface Technology (RE-NET) program.
In 2015 it was reported that scientists from the Perception and Recognition Neuro-technologies Laboratory at the Southern Federal University in Rostov-on-Don suggested using rats with microchips planted in their brains to detect explosive devices.
[47][48][49] In 2016 it was reported that American engineers are developing a system that would transform locusts into "remote controlled explosive detectors" with electrodes in their brains beaming information about dangerous substances back to their operators.
Rapid advancements in neurostimulation technologies are providing relief to an unprecedented number of patients affected by debilitating neurologic and psychiatric disorders.
Neurostimulation therapies include invasive and noninvasive approaches that involve the application of electrical stimulation to drive neural function within a circuit.
Individuals and companies exploring brain–computer interface include: Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Neuralink, CTRL Labs, and Synchron.
In a study published in May 2023 in the journal Nature, researchers in Switzerland described such implants which allowed a 40-year-old man, paralyzed from the hips down for 12 years, to stand, walk and ascend a steep ramp with only the assistance of a walker.
[53] Yale University physiologist Jose Delgado demonstrated limited control of animal and human subjects' behaviours using electronic stimulation.
He invented the stimoceiver or transdermal stimulator, a device implanted in the brain to transmit electrical impulses that modify basic behaviours such as aggression or sensations of pleasure.
Current research is focused on enabling paralyzed patients to move external devices through thought as well as facilitating thought-to-text capability in this population.
In 2012, a landmark study in Nature, led by pioneer Leigh Hochberg, MD, PhD, demonstrated that two people with tetraplegia were able to control robotic arms through thought when connected to the BrainGate neural interface system.
In October 2020, two patients were able to wirelessly control a Surface Book 2 running Windows 10 to text, email, shop and bank using direct thought through the Stentrode brain computer interface.
Walter Glannon, a neuroethicist of the University of Calgary notes that "there is a risk of the microchips being hacked by third parties" and that "this could interfere with the user's intention to perform actions, violate privacy by extracting information from the chip".
In his 1641 Meditations, Descartes argued that it would be impossible to tell if all one's apparently real experiences were in fact being produced by an evil demon intent on deception.
A somewhat more positive view of brain implants used to communicate with a computer as a form of augmented intelligence is seen in Algis Budrys 1976 novel Michaelmas.
He also explores possible entertainment applications of brain implants such as the "simstim" (simulated stimulation) which is a device used to record and playback experiences.
