Dec 1, 2022 03:43 AM
(This post was last modified: Dec 1, 2022 08:38 AM by Yazata.)
Right now a Neuralink "show and tell" is underway, featuring Elon and descriptions of what they are doing
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/YreDYmXTYi4
Mind boggling developments! You need to watch this presentation!
Engineers and medical people explained what they are working on and where they are at.
They are moving from prototypes to production. They have device manufacturing facility in Austin Texas along with a complete operating room, also in Austin.
They are initially producing what they call the "N-1 implant" with 1024 channels, along with their "R-1 surgical robot" able to implant thousands of electrodes very precisely while avoiding blood vessels.
You've seen the videos of monkeys playing pong with their minds. More recently, they have created a game for monkeys to play with their minds, where squares light up and monkeys move a curser to the lit up square. The next step was to replace the squares with a keyboard or a cell phone screen, light up things and have the monkeys show they can move the curser there. So they have proven that a brain can work a computer keyboard or cell phone screen just by thinking about it. What's more, subject monkeys with implants can do this much more quickly than a kid can work a phone with his/her thumbs. (Elon says that thumbs have a very low bit-rate. I can even imagine competitive video gamers wanting this if it can speed up their game play by eliminating the manual controller.)
So after a series of tests on monkeys (who appear to experience no discomfort and enjoy their new games), they have applied to the FDA for approval to do this on human quadriplegics. They hope to try it on humans in about six months.
Further out, they are working on restoring vision for the blind. This is a complex problem and they are doing very detailed mapping of the visual cortex in their monkeys. Part of the problem in doing that in the past has been that much of the visual cortex is very deep in the brain, but their innovative electrodes and surgical robot are able to reach those regions. What's more, visual images aren't mapped in the visual cortex like photographs, it's more like the sensory homunculus with much of the cortex devoted to the middle of the visual field with much less to the outer parts of the field. They have trained monkeys to look at a dot in the center of a screen, then show flashes elsewhere on the screen and reward the monkeys if they look at the flashes. Then they mix the screen flashes with visual cortex stimulation and map where the monkeys look. Having cameras produce useful images in a blind person's visual cortex is a long term goal, but it's still quite a ways off.
They are also working on mapping activation of motor cortex neurons and leg movements in pigs. They can already control pig leg movements, albeit fairly crudely with bending and extending movements. They have a blue square on the floor where pigs know they will be stimulated and can freely leave the square if they don't like it. The pigs get treats in the square and seem happy to go there. The stimulation doesn't seem to bother them.
And the team is working on completing the loop by figuring out how to route sensory data on what the limbs are doing back up to precisely mapped stimulations in the sensory cortex so that a quadriplegic with a severed spinal cord can not only move their limbs but also feel the limbs as they move. Again, this area of research will take longer to bring to fruition, but the goal is to return full functionality to people with spinal cord injuries.
Somebody in the audience pointed out that all of this concerns brain inputs and outputs (I/O) and asked if they anticipate penetrating deeper to the level of ideas and memories. One of the presenters did say that he was motivated to work at Neuralink by the scenes in the Matrix where they download skills like kung fu or flying a helicopter directly into the brain. But Elon said that is probably something for other teams that come after them and build on their work to accomplish. They are going for the simpler things first.
https://twitter.com/WholeMarsBlog/status...0591301633
Mind boggling developments! You need to watch this presentation!
Engineers and medical people explained what they are working on and where they are at.
They are moving from prototypes to production. They have device manufacturing facility in Austin Texas along with a complete operating room, also in Austin.
They are initially producing what they call the "N-1 implant" with 1024 channels, along with their "R-1 surgical robot" able to implant thousands of electrodes very precisely while avoiding blood vessels.
You've seen the videos of monkeys playing pong with their minds. More recently, they have created a game for monkeys to play with their minds, where squares light up and monkeys move a curser to the lit up square. The next step was to replace the squares with a keyboard or a cell phone screen, light up things and have the monkeys show they can move the curser there. So they have proven that a brain can work a computer keyboard or cell phone screen just by thinking about it. What's more, subject monkeys with implants can do this much more quickly than a kid can work a phone with his/her thumbs. (Elon says that thumbs have a very low bit-rate. I can even imagine competitive video gamers wanting this if it can speed up their game play by eliminating the manual controller.)
So after a series of tests on monkeys (who appear to experience no discomfort and enjoy their new games), they have applied to the FDA for approval to do this on human quadriplegics. They hope to try it on humans in about six months.
Further out, they are working on restoring vision for the blind. This is a complex problem and they are doing very detailed mapping of the visual cortex in their monkeys. Part of the problem in doing that in the past has been that much of the visual cortex is very deep in the brain, but their innovative electrodes and surgical robot are able to reach those regions. What's more, visual images aren't mapped in the visual cortex like photographs, it's more like the sensory homunculus with much of the cortex devoted to the middle of the visual field with much less to the outer parts of the field. They have trained monkeys to look at a dot in the center of a screen, then show flashes elsewhere on the screen and reward the monkeys if they look at the flashes. Then they mix the screen flashes with visual cortex stimulation and map where the monkeys look. Having cameras produce useful images in a blind person's visual cortex is a long term goal, but it's still quite a ways off.
They are also working on mapping activation of motor cortex neurons and leg movements in pigs. They can already control pig leg movements, albeit fairly crudely with bending and extending movements. They have a blue square on the floor where pigs know they will be stimulated and can freely leave the square if they don't like it. The pigs get treats in the square and seem happy to go there. The stimulation doesn't seem to bother them.
And the team is working on completing the loop by figuring out how to route sensory data on what the limbs are doing back up to precisely mapped stimulations in the sensory cortex so that a quadriplegic with a severed spinal cord can not only move their limbs but also feel the limbs as they move. Again, this area of research will take longer to bring to fruition, but the goal is to return full functionality to people with spinal cord injuries.
Somebody in the audience pointed out that all of this concerns brain inputs and outputs (I/O) and asked if they anticipate penetrating deeper to the level of ideas and memories. One of the presenters did say that he was motivated to work at Neuralink by the scenes in the Matrix where they download skills like kung fu or flying a helicopter directly into the brain. But Elon said that is probably something for other teams that come after them and build on their work to accomplish. They are going for the simpler things first.
https://twitter.com/WholeMarsBlog/status...0591301633
