Creator of world-first brain chip says technology is at a ‘tipping point’
Decades after the first brain chip enabled a paralyzed person to move a cursor on a screen, convert words into speech and control a robotic arm, the technology’s creator believes the devices have reached a “tipping point” and could soon control speech or a computer.
Professor John Donoghue, who created the first brain chip called BrainGate at Brown University in Rhode Island, won the Queen Elizabeth Prize for engineering this month.
Through clinical trials, the BrainGate team continues to make progress in using brain-computer interfaces to restore function lost due to neurological injury or disease.
One example among a dozen other companies is Elon Musk’s Neuralink. The technology builds on Professor Donoghue’s initial work, which saw electrodes attached to a computer chip that could detect nerve signals in the brain.
There are already 12 clinical trial patients using Neuralink devices to control computers with their thoughts. The tech billionaire believes future capabilities could include streaming music directly to the brain, restoring vision for blind people and enabling superhuman-level communication through telepathy.
Researchers in San Francisco have also developed a robotic arm that receives signals from the brain to a computer, allowing a man who cannot speak or move to interact with objects.
But when the brain chip was first created, scientists didn’t know whether a paralyzed person had any movement-related brain activity.
“We didn’t know at the time whether a paralyzed person would have any movement-related brain activity,” Professor Donoghue said.
“There were people who thought that an entire area of the brain was shutting down. We showed that not just the activity, but a lot of it. So the question then became: What can we do with this?”
However, when the team turned on the device for the first time, it proved that the device engaged with brain activity and proved the critics wrong. By decoding signals from the motor cortex of the volunteer’s brain, the brain chip converted words into speech and was able to move the robotic arm.
Decades later, the devices are just entering clinical trials because it is difficult to make implants safe enough to stay in the brain indefinitely. Professor Donoghue explained that the heat from the device and possible infections were obstacles.
“If you have a device with an electronic processor on it, it gets hot, just like your phone gets really hot,” he told Sky News. He explained that the brain can only tolerate one or two degrees.
But he believes well-funded companies like Neuralink are likely to approve a device to help people with severe paralysis.
“I think we’re at a turning point,” he added. “If you want to control a computer or if you want to restore speech, I think there’s no reason why we can’t see those things as fast as someone can build a validated device.”
