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These are the top five things you should know about the neuralink brain implant.
If you're watching this, you probably know something about the brain implant already, but there was a lot of information in Neuralink's live steam and the related scientific paper entitled an integrated brain-machine interface platform.
With thousands of channels.
I'm going to give you the Top Five Things You Should Know About neural links tech.
How do we rank such things by logical order.
Each item will build upon the other to give you a better idea of what neurologic is trying to do.
And number five, why bother with a brain implant at all?
The implant is trying to track spikes, also known as action potentials.
Essentially an action potential is an electrical impulse.
A spike happens when a neuron, Sends information.
Neuralink's brain machine interface or BMI, can track the spikes in real time.
There is no wearable that can track the spikes because you need to be under 60 microns away from the neuron for tracking.
Implants are not a new thing.
Neuralink also showed a history of implants dating back to 1957.
So why does Neuralink want to implant tech in a brain?
To get real time data from neurons as they fire.
Number four.
How does one implant something in a brain to read spikes anyway?
Take a look at these other implants technologies.
One is called the Utah Array.
The other is called the Deep Brain Stimulater.
They are very invasive.
Take a look at Neuralink's N1 sensor, it's tiny.
Here it is on a finger, and here it is next to a penny.
Back to our question, how does one implant something so tiny?
Build a robot.
This is a surgical robot that deals with the complexity of the surgery, such as the subject moving due to breathing.
The robot is under the supervision of the surgeon.
As electro threads are implanted.
In test, neurolink demonstrated an average of 87.1 plus or minus 12.6% insertion success rates over 19 surgeries.
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Number 3, this is didn't work?
Take a look at this cute little critter, it's called a Long-Evans Rat, two colors.
Well, you can buy them for experiments starting around $23 per rat So, Neuralink tested it's systems in male Long-Evans rats, recordings were made as the rats freely explored an arena.
Paper says quote, digitized broadband signals were processed in real time To identify action potentials spikes using an online detection algorithm with the robot asst surgery, neural link says implanted this tech while minimizing bleeding and reducing the risk of harming cortical vessels.
So the implant is definitely capable of reading neural signals.
Number two, how would this work on a human Thinking, Hey, wait a minute, I'm not a long Evans rat.
How does this work on humans?
He made the details on what happens to a person.
Normally, here's how traditional brain surgery goes.
Your head may be clamped in place plus, your head may be shaved with scarring being a possibility.
Neural link says they want to arrive to something different.
They likened it to LASIK.
No big scars, no hospital stays, it would be a short procedure and you get to keep all your hair.
Neurolink says, for its first clinical trials, the traditional method or something close to it will likely be used.
Here's how the procedure would go after all the trials.
You get a local anaesthetic, a small opening is made in the skin, a painless opening.
Is then made in the skull below.
After that, there's a quick placement of the implant.
Then the hole in the skull is filled with the sensor.
The scalp is finally closed up.
Then behind the ear, a small incision is made for a coil.
The surgeons will tunnel tiny wires to connect the coil to the sensors.
In tests, total insertion time averaged 45 minutes.
And the number one thing you should know about the neural link brain implant is what the heck would this do?
The first product is focused on control.
Patients wanted the ability to control a mobile device, no caretaker necessary once that control is possible through the implant The phone output could also be redirected to a computer as mouse and keyboard inputs to learn how to use a neural link implant in conjunction with other devices.
Neural link has an app to teach patients.
And an example.
Neural link says Imagine if you never had arms and you had to pick something off the table.
You'll use the app to connect the brain activity to the movement you want to accomplish.
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Neural link says it's a long process comparing it to learning how to touch type or play piano.
The paper went on to say, quote in the future, this approach to conceivably restore motor function.
That's amazing neural link sets 2020 as an aspirational date The first in human clinical studies.
What do you think about this whole brain implant thing?
Do you think neural link can make its vision come true?
Let us know in the comments is that turn.
I'll see you online.
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