No, this article will not be sponsoring Elon Musk’s ‘Neuralink’, despite all his promising proclamations of telepathic communication with our phones.
As if technology hasn’t consumed our lives enough.
Well, it truly hasn’t. 1.9% of the global population struggle to move their limbs. And although that may seem like a small percentage of the world, that’s 5.6 million people who have been inflicted with some form of paralysis. If you ask me, that’s 5.6 million too many. In the United States alone, stroke is the leading cause of paralysis, making up to 33.7% of the paralysed population. Essentially, it is caused by damage (whether that be a spinal cord injury, tumours, or a blockage in blood flow to the brain) or dysfunction of the nervous system, such as multiple sclerosis (which is a nerve disorder). The brain, however, is still capable of sending out motor commands. There simply has to be a link between muscle to brain.
Despite the greater media coverage Elon Musk’s Neuralink received back in 2024, Synchron has conducted brain-computer trials deserving further recognition. Synchron’s Brain Computer Interface, BCI for short, is proudly named the Stentrode. As the name suggests, it is a self-expanding stent with electrodes. A device that can be implanted endovascularly via the jugular vein using a catheter, placing it in proximity to the motor cortex. These electrodes work by recording and translating electrical signals from the brain into digital motor outputs. These outputs are then used to command external devices, specifically decoded by sophisticated algorithms. Whether that be a computer cursor, an exoskeleton, or your local Amazon Alexa.
These trials began as the COMMAND early feasibility study, which evaluated the safety and efficacy of the Stentrode. It involved six patients, observed over the course of 12 months. Unfortunately, all the patients who received the implant were diagnosed with severe chronic bilateral upper-limb paralysis prior to the study; unresponsive to therapy. Fortunately, it was heavily supported by the National Institutes of Health’s NIH BRAIN Initiative and conducted under an FDA-approved investigational device exemption. At the 1-year finish line, the patients were reported to have no serious adverse events related to the brain or vasculature. It has also demonstrated to consistently capture electrical activity and translate them into DMOs. And as it is an endovascular BCI, it offers long-term signal stability. In addition to those benefits, it is minimally invasive, making it more accessible to those who need it.
But in practicality? How would it allow those debilitated by paralysis be able to pull a leg? Well, another discovery in 2017 pushed a major breakthrough in the field of mind-controlled exoskeletons. A 30-year-old French man, identified as Thibault was tragically left paraplegic in a nightclub accident. He took part in an exoskeleton trial, led by Clinatec and the University of Grenoble. Under surgery, two major implants were placed covering his motor cortex. Similar to the Stentrode, these implants carried sixty-four electrodes each, all reading brain activity and translating these instructions to a nearby computer. When Thibault thinks the command, “walk”, it fires a chain of movements in the suit that allows him to move the legs forward.
Hooray! We are now a step closer to getting a real-life Terminator.
It won’t be long before neuroprosthetics evolve to further improve our quality of life. Imagine, a cochlear implants that give you super-hearing, or neural chips that allow you to jump several feet in the air. Humanity will always be praised for its ability to grow, adapt, and evolve. Perhaps someday, these devices will help us overcome many more of our biological challenges.
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