Madrid, Dec 28 (EFE).- Brain implants that allow people with paralysis to move a limb or even play a video game, which leen brain signals and translate thoughts into words almost in real time are some of the latest advances in an emerging but promising field of neurotechnology: that of interfaces.
For now, these achievements are proofs of concept or small clinical trials that serve to demonstrate the viability of a surgery, a biomaterial or an Artificial Intelligence (AI) model trained to predict the brain’s orders, but together, they are the advances that in the future will make the development of devices to assist people without mobility or with neurological diseases a reality.
The brain will possibly be the great scientific and technological challenge of the 21st century. And in the coming years, technologies based on brain-computer interfaces will grow exponentially.predicts the director of the Bioengineering Institute of the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (Alicante), in Spain, Eduardo Fernández.
What is an interface
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But what is an interface? Basically it is a tool that allows communication and interaction between systems or devices, or between an electronic device and a part of an organism.he explains. The first were ‘pacemakers’, but since then many types of devices have been developed that connect technology with the body.
Some – designed to stimulate a specific part of the brain – are already being used successfully to eliminate tremors in people with Parkinson’s, or in cochlear implants, which allow some hearing capacity to be restored to deaf people, but for most pathologies, these technologies still have a long way to go.
But when we talk about brain interfaces we are referring to electronic systems that, through sensors implanted in the brain, communicate with the nervous system, which also uses electrical signals.
These record information and decode neural signals. In the case of a quadriplegic person, for example, although they cannot make movements, their brain functions without problems. The interfaces are responsible for recording brain activity and sending it to a robotic arm to perform a specific action such as grabbing a glass and bringing it to the mouth..
There is another type of interface, those that have bidirectional communication with the brain and record the information but also send it to the nervous system; The objective is to make possible a dialogue with the brain, a communication that is effective, robust, reliable and safesays Fernández, also director of the Biomedical Neuroengineering group of the CIBER of Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN).
A multidisciplinary investigation
Developing these technologies involves neuroscientists, neurosurgeons, engineers and experts in biomaterials, robotics or technology, because modern neuroscience is an enormous multidisciplinary research challenge that is carried out all over the world.
For these to be reality, The ideal would be to be able to exchange information with the brain and better understand its language.says Fernández, but Unfortunately, we still do not fully understand all the brain mechanisms that participate in information processing..
And the organ that generates emotions, personality and consciousness works thanks to the activity of one hundred billion neurons connected to each other – a network so vast that it triples the size of the Internet on Earth – and that projects such as BRAIN (promoted by Barack Obama in the United States and led by the Spanish neuroscientist Rafael Yuste), or the European HUMAN BRAIN project try to unravel.
The objective is to develop technologies and help patients with physical disabilities or pathologies such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.
There is still a long way to go
Thus, while scientists try to map this sophisticated natural machine and understand how it makes decisions, laboratories around the world are developing interfaces and technologies that communicate with the brain, although most are proofs of concept or small trials.
It is still necessary to create more efficient, safer and more intelligent technologies that allow deciphering the brain’s language and are capable of reading and modifying brain activity in real time, underlines the person in charge of CIBER-BBN.
They are necessary steps towards a future in which We will be able to do many things that are not yet possible today.but, until then, these technologies will have to solve many challenges, such as biocompatibility because implants – as with organ transplants – are foreign bodies that the body has to tolerate.
Therefore, one of the challenges is to look for materials that do not degrade and that function adequately for long periods.
Other bottleneck is to develop miniaturized batteries. The electronics in these devices require a lot of capacity to capture and process signals and, like powerful computers, they consume a lot of energy that is stored in batteries that, for now, are too large for patients.
Furthermore, to avoid infections and other types of problems, they have to work wirelessly, but capturing and processing brain signals requires very complex electronics with many channels. It is an extremely complex parthe acknowledges.
Ethical implications and neurorights
Not only scientists are working in the search for these devices, but also many companies such as Neuralink or Synchron, with economic resources that are beyond the reach of most researchers.
Before they are well developed and devices can ‘read’ people’s minds or send virtual information to the brain, It is essential – warns the scientist – that society as a whole analyzes and regulates the ethical problems that may arise with its development. and that can compromise the dignity and individual freedom of the human being.
Bioethics and neurorights are aspects that Yuste has been defending for a few years, which already have their own legislation in Chile and which should be addressed here as soon as possible. to ensure the protection of user rights (intimacy, privacy, data protection, healthcare, etc.) that could be violated by misuse, concludes Fernández.
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