THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
CHAPTER I
1. Introduction
The evolution and development of mankind began thousands and thousands of years before,
and today our intelligence, our brain is a resultant of this long developmental phase.
Technology also has been on the path of development since when a man appeared. It is man
that gave technology its present form. But today, technology is entering a phase where it will out
with man in intelligence as well as efficiency.
Man has now to find a way in which he can keep in pace with technology, and one of the
recent developments in this regard, is the brain chip technology.
Brain chips are made with a view to enhance the memory of human beings, to help paralyzed
patients, and are also intended to serve military purposes. It is likely that implantable computer
chips acting as sensors, actuators, may soon assist not only failing memory, but even bestow
fluency in a new language, or enable “recognition” of previously unmet individuals. The
progress already made in therapeutic devices, in prosthetics and in computer science indicates
that it may well be feasible to develop direct interfaces between the brain and computers.
The study of the human brain is, obviously, the most complicated area of research. It will be
several years before we see a practical application of the technology we've discussed. Let's hope
such technologies will be used for restoring the prosperity and peace of the world and not to give
the world a devastating end.
1.1 Rationale for this research
This research is made for us know what are the advantages and disadvantages of the brain chip
technology, how does this chip works and what are the possible effects to our body when it is
implemented.
1.2 Statement of the problem
This research entitled “Brain Chip Technology” was conducted to know the results of the past
experiments done by the recent researcher.
General Problem
The study intended to develop and evaluate brain chip technology. Specifically, it sought to
answer the following questions:
1. How do the respondents assess the current technical support system in terms of the
following
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
1.1 accuracy
1.2 effectiveness
1.3 efficiency
2. Is it helpful to our brain?
3. Is this chip helps the brain to manage well?
4. Does this technology essential to our life?
To find this out, this research uses survey, books, internet and interviews to the people who
are related on this technology.
1.3 Objectives

To know what are the components of the brain chip.

To inform other people about this technology.

To find the possible outcomes, results and effects of the brain chip.
1.4 Research Method
In order to perform a study entitled “Brain Chip Technology”, the researcher thought that it is
proper and appropriate to make use of the descriptive type of research.
The Descriptive Method is a fact-finding approach with adequate interpretation. This method
allows the researchers to collect data and to report from the point of view of some objectives and basic
assumption of the study. It also analyses and interprets the status of the system currently in use.
This method of research focuses on process, analysis, and interpretation of data being collected. It
involves the interpretation of the significance of what is being described. This process of research goes
beyond simple gathering and tabulation of data. The methods involved range from the survey, which
describes the status quo, the correlation study that investigate the relationship between variables, to test
and assess mobile game application. The main goal of this descriptive research is to test and assess a
mobile game application in terms of its portability, functionality and accuracy.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
CHAPTER II
RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
This chapter presents the local literature, local studies, foreign literature and
foreign studies along the present line of this study considered pertinent or relevant by
the researcher.
FOREIGN STUDIES
(Based on the studies of Richard Larin, Ray Wu, Haven Eichleay, Olga
Belomestnykh, & Jonathan Go)
On July 3rd 2001, what started as an innocent Massachusetts fireworks show
became the crime scene that changed one man’s life forever. At 6’2” and 180 pounds,
Matthew Nagle was a star football player at Weymouth High. When he was leaving
the show, one of Nagle’s friends entered into a heated argument. The dispute quickly
escalated to blows and Nagle rushed to his friend’s aid. During the struggle Nagle
was stabbed in the neck by an 8-inch knife that severed his spinal cord. When he
awoke in a hospital, he was paralyzed from the neck down. Despite his grim situation,
Nagle was determined to find a way to walk again. A ray of hope appeared two years
later when he read an article in The Boston Globe about cutting-edge brain chip
research at Cyberkinetics Inc. He pleaded with his doctors to contact Cyberkinetics,
and shortly after he was selected to participate in a clinical trial. In 2004 he became
the first person to be implanted with a Cyberkinetics’ BrainGate® chip. Young,
physically fit and confident, Nagle was the perfect subject."I learned to use it in
two or three days - it's supposed to take 11 months," he stated proudly. "I totally knew
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
this was going to work." Three years after his accident Nagle gained the ability to
perform basic computer tasks, control a TV, and even operate a prosthetic hand
through thought alone. This accomplishment laid the foundation to find a cure for
paralysis.
“I learned to use it in two or three days - it's supposed to take 11 months" -Matthew
Nagle
BRAIN FUNCTION
The human brain is the command center of the nervous system. It is composed
of 100 billion highly specialized cells called neurons. Through the complex
networking of these cells, the brain sends and receives signals that manage biological
processes within the body and direct voluntary movement. In a healthy person,
sensory neurons carry signals from the body through the spinal cord to the brain,
while motor neurons carry signals from the brain through the spinal cord to all other
parts of the body. Nagle’s severed spinal cord effectively disconnected his brain from
his limbs. Currently, there are no cures for paralyzed people. However, research
concerning the development of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) presents a potential
solution. Successful trials using BCIs in subjects, such as Nagle, provide hope that
brain chip technology will one day enable paralyzed people to control computers,
wheelchairs, and even their own limbs.
Fifty Years of Progress
Brain chips have been a far - fetched dream ever since Jose Delgado began his
research in the early 1950s. Known as the pioneer of brain chip technology, he
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
implan ted primitive devices in animal and human brains. Delgado was able to control
his subject’s emotions by stimulating different areas of the cortex. In his most
famous experiment in 1963, Delgado implanted a miniature electrode, called a
stimoceiver, into the brain of a fighting bull. This stimoceiver received and
transmitted signals over FM radio waves, and could be controlled remotely. By
stimulating a specific part of the charging bull’s brain, Delgado was able to stop the
bull in its tracks. This and e xperiments like it, were the earliest forms of BCI
research.
The Chip
Brain chips often fail because of pinholes in their insulation coat. These
pinholes allow chemicals and fluid to come in direct contact with the sensitive
circuitry of the chip, which results in immediate failure of the chip. Thus the coating
material of Nagle’s brain chip was of utmost importance. Because of the size
constraint, encapsulating the chip in a thick layer of insulation was not a viable
option. Instead, the chip implanted in Nagle was coated in monolithic silicone. Its
electrodes were coated with Paralyn e C, topped with platinum tips and insulated with
thin glass. The combination of these materials allowed the chip to be small, durable,
and efficient. Nagle’s chip recorded brain signals using integrated CMOS circuitry,
which is an array of recording electrodes. Just like repeating an experiment ensures
statistically significant results, using multiple electrodes improved the reliability of
the recorded data. The Comparing the Chip to a Dime [CyberkineticsInc]
In 1998 the first BCI was implanted into a human brain. However, this
primitive design had limited functionality. It read neural signals, but produced an
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
impractical output; the p erson with this chip could “type” only three characters per
minute on a virtual keyboard. Three years later, John Donoghue and a group of
researchers established Cyberkinetics: Neurotechnology Systems, a public company
to commercially develop BCIs.
Matthew Nagle’s brain chip was designed to provide a balance between
safety, durability, and functionality. The chip had to be small enough to not hinder
normal brain function and non- disruptive to neural communication to avoid brain
damage. At the same time, the chip had to be resistant to corrosion caused by brain
chemicals. While fulfilling these safety requirements, the primary function of the chip
was to record and transmit the delicate signals of Nagle’s brain. Brain chip was
equipped with 96 recording electrodes spaced 0.4mm apart. It received data at the rate
of 10,000 signals per second per electrode. The end size of the chip was 4mm x 4mm
x 1.5mm and was implanted a little over 1mm into Nagle’s brain.
Implementation
In developing the BCI, researchers implanted a brain chip in subjects with full
neural and motor capacity. The subjects performed elementary actions, such as
raising an arm, and the neuron activity was recorded using the chip. These
experiments allowed for the s imultaneous recording of both hand motion and neural
activity.
Later in the trial, Nagle developed the ability to open and close a prosthetic hand.
All of his accompli shments were exciting not only because of the physical successes,
but also because of the manner in which he was able to control the BCI. Like a
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
healthy person, Nagle was able to do other things, such as whistling or talking, while
voluntarily “moving” and this exact location. After recovering from surgery, doctors
thought that it would take 11 months for Nagl e to learn how to control a computer
cursor using the BrainGate® system. However, Nagle surprised everyone when he
began to have success on just his second day of training with the implanted BCI. The
BrainGate Neural Interface created a direct link between Nagle’s brain and a
computer in the following way: when he thought “move cursor down,” his cortical
neurons fired in a distinctive pattern. The brain chip sensed these electrical signals
The researchers were then able to create a relational model using the two data
sets. In addition, researchers discovered that although there are multiple sets of
neurons that determine the force and direction of motor action, the data from a small
sample of neurons can be reconstructed into full three-dimensional arm trajectories
using simple multiple linear regression. Researchers found that the placement of the
brain chip did not matter as much as originally thought. The chip was able to pick up
neural signals not only from the neurons that it directly touched, but also from
important nearby neural clusters. This suggests that users of the chip were able to
learn how to use the BCI through signals generated by the BCI itself. With prolonged
use, the neurons in contact with the chip became increasingly compatible and
responsive in performing desired tasks. In Nagle’s inaugural clinical trial, doctors
first pinpointed the exact location in Nagle’s primary motor cortex that once
controlled his dominant hand. The chip was then implanted at and transmitted them to
a pedestal plug that was directly attached to his skull. The signal was then sent
through a wire to an amplifier, where it was converted into optical data and sent to a
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
computer through fiber-optic cables. The BrainGate® system decoded the data
associated with Nagle’s thoughts into the specified movement of the computer cursor.
Thus Nagle was able to play computer games, check email, and draw using
BrainGate.
In his case a cursor or a prosthetic hand. In other words, the BCI did not require
single-focus concentration. Furthermore, using the BrainGate® system became
intuitive for Nagle. Rather than thinking about the process of moving a cursor by
moving his hand, he eventually started moving the cursor by simply imagining the
cursor going from place to place. The cursor became as much a part of Nagle as his
arms and legs once were. Researchers removed Nagle’s brain chip after one year of
observation. B ecause of the brevity of his trial, it is unknown whether transmitting
signals from an implanted chip causes brain damage. Brain experimentation is a risky
procedure where minor errors or mechanical malfunctions can lead to permanent
damage or even death. Extended research beyond the scope of Nagle’s study is
necessary to determine the long-term effects of the chip.
A Look into the Future
Despite all the uncertainties, Nagle’s success provides hope and motivation
for what researchers envision in the n ear future of brain chip technology—paralyzed
people gaining the ability to fully control prosthetic limbs. Doctors hypothesize
that with training and improved technology, the brain can control a prosthetic
limb as if it were a part of the body itself. This is supported by research revealing that
the adult cortex shows significant functional reorganization after nervous system
injuries, changes in sensory experience, or learning of new motor skills.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
Bold researchers are even optimistic about the ultimate goal of brain chip
technology: to give paralyzed people control of their own limbs. Theoretically, one
could bypass the broken motor pathway by hooking up BrainGate® to stimulators
that activate muscle tissue. Researchers are currently planning larger clinical trials in
order to accomplish this far-off, though seemingly reachable, goal. Donoghue
comments, "These are the first steps. The goal is, one day you'd be sitting there with a
person who was sipping coffee, typing on a computer, and he'd say, `Oh, by the way,
I was a paraplegic but they wired me back together.' The promise is terrific. I think
these things will happen. But it will take time."
Rats Communicate Through Brain Chips
Pairs of rats can communicate through brain chips and collaborate to perform
a task, reportresearchers in today’s Scientific Reports. Brain activity recorded in one
rat was translated into a pattern of electrical pulses that were then transmitted to
another rat that had been trained to push a particular lever in response to one of two
patterns of electrical stimulation in its brain. The rats also worked together, say the
researchers. If the second rat chose the wrong lever, then the first rat would change its
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
brain function and behavior in the next trial so that the receiving rodent was more
likely to get it right, claim the scientists.
The research was led by Miguel Nicolelis, a neuroscientist at Duke University
Medical Center, who has previously described a brain-computer interface through
which a monkey could control a walking robot (see “The Power of Thought”) and
another setup in which a virtual sense of touch was fed into a monkey’s brain through
an electrical stimulating array (see “Giving Prosthetics a Sense of Touch”). A
handful of labs have been making impressive progress in reading and writing to the
brain in recent years with the aim of helping paralyzed people regain mobility via
thought-controlled robotics. Last year, two research teams reported that quadriplegic
patients could use brain implants to control robot limbs (see “Brain Chip Helps
Quadriplegics Move Robotic Arms with Their Thoughts” and “Patient Shows New
Dexterity with a Mind-Controlled Robot Arm”).
But today’s study, says Nicolelis, was not about improving brain-computer
interface technology for patients but rather exploring new frontiers. “We observed the
emergence of physiological properties that we could not predict before we did this,”
he says, pointing to what he calls collaboration between the two animals’ brains.
In the experiment, Nicolelis and his team trained a rat to choose between a
right-side or left-side lever to push depending on which of two LEDs lit up. If the rat
pushed the correct lever, it got a rewarding sip of water. The researchers recorded the
electrical activity of the rat’s motor cortex, the region of the brain that controls
movements, and translated the activity involved in pushing the right-side lever into
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
many pulses and pushing the left-side lever into fewer pulses. These pulses were then
sent to the implant in the brain of another rat in a separate chamber. That rat had been
trained to respond to pulse patterns in a similar way—more pulses meant push the
right-side lever.
With no cue from the LEDs in its cage, the second rat was able to choose the
correct lever 64 percent of the time, at which point both rats would get a water reward
(the information-sending rat would thus get two; the information receiving rat would
get only one). When the second rat got it wrong, the first rat noticed, says Nicolelis,
because it did not get a second reward. So in the next trial, the first rat would respond
more quickly to the LED cue and produce a greater amount of task-related neuron
firing compared to background brain noise, he says, which made the second rat more
likely to choose the correct lever. This is what Nicolelis refers to as collaboration.
The researchers also demonstrated the brain-to-brain communication with
whisker stimulation in the first rat. Like a cat, rats use their whiskers to determine
how wide an opening is, and the rodents can be trained to turn their head to the left or
right depending on whether a hole in their cage is narrow. Similar to the first
experiment, the brain activity of the first rat was translated into a particular pattern of
pulses sent to the second rat, which had been trained to poke its head left in response
to electrical pulses, and right in the absence of pulses. With these tests, the second rat
chose the correct side about 62 percent of the time.
With the whisker test, the team demonstrated that the rats need not be in the
same building—or even on the same continent—to collaborate. A rat in Brazil at
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal sent brain
signals to a rat on the Duke campus in Durham, North Carolina.
However, the binary decisions made in the rat tests are not up-to-speed with
what brain-computer interfaces can do these days, wrote University of
Pittsburgh’s Andrew Schwartz, a pioneer in patient brain-computer interfaces, in an
e-mail to MIT Technology Review. “It may sound like ‘mental telepathy’ and
therefore seem exciting, but when looked at more carefully, it is very simplistic,” he
wrote. “As a communication channel, you could think of a locked-in patient trying to
communicate by blinking, where a blink means yes and no blink mean no. This kind
of information could be conveyed by recording from a single neuron in one rat and
buzzing electrical current in the receiver rat. If the rat feels the buzz, it means yes, no
buzz means no.”
But Nicolelis sees this demonstration as the beginning of a new line of
research that could lead to a new form of computing. He says his lab is working on
“swarms” of rats that could share motor and sensory information via brain-to-brain
interfaces. “If you put brains together, you could create a more powerful non-Turing
machine, an organic computer that computes by experience, by heuristic,” he says.
“That could be a very interesting architecture to explore.”
Brain Chip Helps Quadriplegics Move Robotic Arms with Their Thoughts
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
A paralyzed patient equipped with an implanted brain chip has been able to use
a robotic arm to reach for and pick up a bottle of coffee, bring it close enough to her
face so she could drink from a straw, and then place the bottle back on the table.
The quadriplegic patient was outfitted with an electronic brain implant that can drive
a robotic arm to reach and grasp objects (see video). A study published today in the
journal Nature shows that people with the brain chips can use the devices to perform
complex three-dimensional tasks that could be helpful in daily life. Furthermore, the
implanted electrodes can record neuronal signals for as long as five years—longer
than had been suspected. In previous studies, patients using brain implants have been
able to move a cursor on a screen, but not perform complicated movements with
objects in the real world.
The results are the latest announcements from a team led by John
Donoghue, a neuroscientist at Brown University. Donoghue and collaborators
hadreported in 2006 that patients paralyzed by spinal-cord injuries could use brainmachine interfaces to drive the movement of cursors on a screen and do simple openand-close movements with a robotic hand. Now the researchers have shown that a
brain-machine interface can direct more complicated tasks. “Not only can people
control a computer cursor, they can control really complex devices like a robotic arm
that can carry out the functions that our own arm can do,” says Donoghue.
The brain implant is a small array that’s four millimeters on each side
(“about the size of a baby aspirin,” says Donoghue) with 96 hairlike electrodes
extending from one side. The device sits on the surface of the brain, and the
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
electrodes penetrate the arm-controlling region of the motor cortex by one millimeter.
The implant records the impulses of dozens of neurons. A patient’s intent to move
generates these impulses, which are then transmitted to a computer that translates the
patterns of electrical activity into commands that can control a robotic arm.
“What’s striking to me about this study is that it’s nicely showing, for
the first time in human patients, that you can use these signals to control a robot of
importance for activities of daily living for a patient,” says Andrew Jackson, a
neuroscientist at Newcastle University. The researchers say that algorithmic
improvements in picking up patterns of activity in the brain and interpreting those
patterns were key to the advance.
The goal of the pilot clinical trial is to develop technologies that can
restore the ability to communicate and move and to give independence to people with
neurological disease or injury. So far, seven patients have enrolled in the trial. The
two participants in this latest work both suffered from brain-stem strokes that left
them unable to speak or move their limbs. At the time of the study, one patient had
the implant for five months, the other for more than five years.
The longevity of the implants demonstrates that the device can pick
up usable signals from the brain for years, a point of concern in the field. “When you
put something into the brain, there’s a reaction to the presence of that device,” says
Donoghue. Cells are damaged or displaced by the electrodes, and the brain can form
scar tissue around them. But “it doesn’t seem that the reaction of the brain is a barrier
to recording,” says Donoghue.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
Still, the signal deteriorated over time. “Even though they are
recording signals five years after the array was put in, the signals aren’t that stable
day to day,” says Jackson. He points out that the jellylike tissue of the brain moves
within our skull, and a rigid, fixed implant may force the brain to deform around it.
“If the signals are changing day to day, would [a patient] need to recalibrate the
system day to day?”
For now, the implant must be plugged into an external setup, but the
Brown researchers and researchers at Blackrock Microsystems in Utah (which
manufactures the implants) are working on wireless versions that are being tested in
animals. Donoghue hopes that the implants can eventually drive electrical stimulation
of a patient’s own muscles, circumventing the need for robotic arms. Such
experiments have shown promise in nonhuman primates (for example, see a recent
study from Northwestern University).
This paper defines and discusses the break-through technology of
brain implants. Brain implants, often referred to as neural are technological devices
that connect directly to a biological subject's brain. The paper explains how the link
between the computer chip and the human brain is established, and how things that
used to be in the science fiction movies has now become reality such as controlling
movements through thought only and giving orders to the computer through the brain
directly without any other interference from the human body. The paper also
discusses the vital implication of this technology in the healthcare industry and the
hope that this technology gives to paralyzed patients interact with their environments
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
and perhaps, ultimately, to bypass damaged spinal cords and restore movement to
lifeless limbs.
Brain implants, often referred to as neural implants, are
technological devices that connect directly to a biological subject's brain--usually
placed on the surface of the brain, or attached to the brain's cortex. . Some brain
implants involve creating interfaces between neural systems and computer chips,
which are part of a wider research field called brain-computer interfaces. Another
common purpose of modern brain implants and the focus of much current research is
establishing a biomedical prosthesis circumventing areas in the brain, which became
dysfunctional after a stroke or other head injuries. This includes sensory substitution,
e.g. in vision. Other brain implants are used in animal experiments simply to record
brain activity for scientific reasons.
A typical neural implant consists of an array of electrodes that
works with the nervous system, either by recording neuronal activity (recording) or
by electrically stimulating them. Electrodes connect the electrochemical functions
within the tissue and the electronic system. A circuit chip with site selection,
amplifiers, and multiplexers works with some form of signal processing/embedded
computing. Finally, a wireless link usually handles bidirectional data and power
input. Implanting neural implants in the brain itself generally requires electrode sites
every 200 [micro]m or so for recording, and perhaps every 400 [micro]m for
stimulation. In cochlear electrodes, sites are on 250-[micro]m centers, consistent with
about 128 sites in the human cochlea.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
Generally, neural implants either record brain signals or stimulate
the brain, but scientists are developing implants that could do both. A wide variety of
high-density microelectrode structures are used in the central-nervous system. Most
have a silicon substrate. Others use metal foils and polymers. The nervous system has
similarities to microelectronics. Neurons, which are specialized nervous-tissue cells,
form complex networks that perform sensory and other physiological functions.
Neuronal-cell bodies take inputs from other cells, launching spike discharges to
stimulate other cells. Closely placed artificial electrodes sense voltages generated
near the cell body during depolarization (a decrease in potential absolute value) of the
cell's membrane. To explore changes over time, as in the case of neural prostheses, it
is important to record simultaneously from dozens or possibly hundreds of cells over
a period of years or even decades. Other devices in the pipeline include retinal
implants for the blind, cortical implants for paralysis, and implants for managing
epilepsy. Driven by solid-state imagers, retinal implants stimulate the optic nerve.
Human volunteers have identified simple objects using only 4 4-site arrays. Larger
arrays are in development. Implants that record signals from the motor cortex could
provide a front end for functional neuromuscular stimulation, offering hope to the
paralyzed. Someday, electrode arrays could detect developing seizures and suppress
them even before the patient senses them. All these wireless, implantable microsystems could come in the next decade.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
In the neuron-to-chip experiment, the current generated by the neuron
has to flow through the thin electrolyte layer between cell and chip. This layer's
resistance creates a voltage, which a transistor inside the chip can pick up as a gate
voltage that will modify the transistor current. In the reverse signal transfer, a
capacitative current pulse is transmitted from the semiconductor through to the cell
membrane, where it decays quickly, but activates voltage-gated ion channels that
create an action potential.
Direct interfaces between small networks of nerve cells and synthetic
devices promise to advance our understanding of neuronal function and may yield a
new generation of hybrid devices that exploit the computational capacities of
biological neural networks. There are several research teams in the U.S. and Europe
that are currently working on so-called neural-silicon hybrid chips. One of the most
celebrated researchers in the field is Ted Berger at the Center for Neural Engineering
at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Berger is also a key player in the
newly established National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center devoted
to biomimetic microelectronics. Berger has set his sights on building artificial neural
cells, initially to act as a cortical prosthesis for individuals who have lost brain cells to
neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's. But eventually, his lab's efforts may usher
in a new era in biologically inspired computing and information processing.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
2. HOW DOES BRAIN/NUERAL IMPLANTS WORK?
Neural signals usually run from tens to hundreds of micro-volts in
amplitude, with frequencies extending to about 10 kHz. There is no way of knowing
in advance where to position electrode sites near neurons of interest. Probes with onchip electronics interface with sites through selectors that let the user choose a subset
of sites to monitor or stimulate. Concentrations of eight or so are common. This
compensates for any probe movement in tissue over time. Selected channels are fed to
amplifiers that are usually coupled. They boost signal levels by 60 dB, operate from
60 to 80 um in <0.1 mm2, and have significantly less noise than the thermal noise
from the site itself. In some cases, the lower cutoff frequency is programmable to
record of low-frequency waves in addition to recording neural spikesOutput
multiplexers are sometimes used to time-multiplex the signals from several channels
onto a single output lead, reducing the number of leads from dense multi-channel
arrays. Lead count is one of the biggest problems in such systems. Output buffers are
also important in making signals immune to leakage and noise externally coupled
onto the output leads. The use of dozens or hundreds of sites can quickly exhaust the
available bandwidth in inductively coupled stimulation/recording systems. This, and
the development of totally implantable microsystems, will require in-vivo
interpretation of neural events and proper responses. And in-vivo neural processing
chips for spike recognition are already here. Wireless microsystems may be getting
under our skin but millions of disabled persons aren't complaining. [8]
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
The BrainGate Neural Interface creates a direct link between a person's
brain and a computer, translating neural activity into action. A person without use of
his limbs but fitted with a BrainGate, can now play a videogame or change channels
on TV using only his mind. This is how they did it:
1. The chip: A 4-millimeter square silicon chip studded with 100 hair-thin
microelectrodes is embedded in a person's primary motor cortex--the region of the
brain responsible for controlling movement.
2. The connector: When the person thinks "move cursor up and left"
(toward email icon), his cortical neurons fire in a distinctive pattern; the signal is
transmitted through the pedestal plug attached to his skull.
3. The converter: The signal travels to a shoebox-sized amplifier mounted
on the wheelchair, where it's converted to optical data and bounced by fiber-optic
cable to a computer.
4. The computer: BrainGate learns to associate patterns of brain activity
with particular imagined movements--up, down, left, right--and to connect those
movements to a cursor.
Electrical signals are responsible for communication in both the brain
and computers. Current research is hoping to use this similarity to get nerve cells and
silicon chips interacting directly. Two-way transmission--as shown in Figure 1- of
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
electrical signals between chips and neurons can already be achieved on a small scale
without invasive connections or damage to either transmitter Combining technology
and biology could lead to devices to restore vision, hearing and limb control and
equipment for many applications in the computer industry.
The Max Planck Institute in Germany is a center of research working on
neural-silicon hybrids. Recently, RA Kaul and P. Fromhertz from the Institute and NI
Syed from the University of Calgary reported in Physical Review Letters on direct
interfacing between a silicon chip and a biological excitatory synapse. The team
constructed a silicon-neuron hybrid circuit by culturing a presynaptic nerve cell atop a
capacitor and transistor gate and a postsynaptic nerve cell atop a second transistor
gate. They applied a voltage to the capacitor, which excited the presynaptic neuron,
and this activity was recorded with the first transistor. When the presynaptic neuron
fired, it generated excitation of the postsynaptic neuron, presumably via an excitatory
synapses, and the activity in the postsynaptic neuron was recorded with the second
transistor. Further, short trains of activity in the presynaptic neuron appeared to
increase the strength of the excitatory synapse between the cells, creating a memory
trace within the circuit.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
3. CONTROLLING MOVEMENT THROUGH THOUGHT ALONE
Systems that allow a brain to control a computer are inching ever closer
to reality, but their most important applications may be different from those
envisaged by science fiction.
Information processing in the brain involves the coordinated activity of
large networks of neurons. Over the past 15 years we have developed and utilized
technologies for extracting this information from neuronal populations in behaving
animals. This involves chronically implanting multi-electrode arrays in functionally
connected areas of the motor and somatosensory systems of the brain. Multiprocessor computer systems are used to simultaneously discriminate and record the
spiking activity of large numbers of single neurons within those systems.
Mathematical techniques are used to decode the information processed by these
neuronal populations while the animals perform specific behavioral tasks involving
somatosensory perception and/or trained limb movement. It was recently shown that
electronic decoding of neuronal population activity could be used to extract and
utilize "comm" for forelimb movement from the motor cortex of rats. The rats were
initially trained to use their forelimbs to press down a lever to a certain position. The
lever movement controlled movement of a robot arm to obtain a drop of water from a
dropper. When the rat released the lever the robot arm delivered the water to the rat's
mouth. Next we suddenly switched the control of the robot arm away from this lever-
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
press, and replaced it with the electronic signal carrying decoded movement
commands from the motor cortex. Four of the six rats were able to use this motor
command signal to control the robot arm with sufficient accuracy to reliably and
repeatedly retrieve water drops. After a few days of this training, the animals were
increasingly able to move the robot arm and retrieve water without the concomitant
lever pressing. This suggests that motor cortical control of limb movement is
modifiable. Thus, paraplegic patients might be able to use their motor cortex activity
to directly control a robot arm, or their own arm using functional stimulation of the
paralyzed muscles.
Monkeys can control a robot arm as naturally as their own limbs using
only brain signals, a pioneering experiment has shown. The macaque monkeys could
reach and grasp with the same precision as their own hand. "It's just as if they have a
representation of a third arm," says project leader Miguel Nicolelis, at Duke
University in Durham, North Carolina. Experts believe the experiment's success
bodes well for future devices for humans that are controlled solely by thought. One
such type of device is a neurally-controlled prosthetic--a brain-controlled false limb.
Nicolelis says his team's work is important because it has shown that prosthetics can
only deliver precision movements if multiple parts of the brain are monitored and
visual feedback is provided. Gerald Loeb, a biomedical engineer at the University of
Southern California in Los Angeles, says the new experiment already has some
parallels in everyday life. For example, he says, when you drive a car it becomes an
extension of your body. The core of the new work is the neuronal model created by
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
the researchers. This translates the brain signals from the monkey into movements of
the robot arm. It was developed by monitoring normal brain and muscle activity as
the monkey moved its own arms. The task involved using a joystick to move a cursor
on a computer screen. While the monkey was doing this, readings were taken from a
few hundred neurons in the frontal and parietal regions of the brain. The activation of
the biceps and wrist muscles was monitored, as was the velocity of the arms and the
force of the grip. Once the neuronal model had developed an accurate level of
prediction the researchers switched the control of the cursor from the joystick to the
robotic arm, which in turn was controlled by the monkey's brain signals. At first the
monkeys continued moving their own arms whilst carrying out the task, but in time
they learned this was no longer necessary and stopped doing so.
A big brown cockroach crawls across the table in the laboratory of
Japan's most prestigious university. The researcher eyes it nervously, but he doesn't
go for the bug spray. He grabs the remote. This is no ordinary under-the-refrigerator
type bug. This roach has been surgically implanted with a micro-robotic backpack
that allows researchers to control its movements. This is Robo-roach. "Insects can do
many things that people can't, " said Assistant Professor Isao Shimoyama, head of the
bio-robot research team at Tokyo University. "The potential applications of this work
for mankind could be immense." Within a few years, Shimoyama says, electronically
controlled insects carrying mini-cameras or other sensory devices could be used for a
variety of sensitive missions--like crawling through earthquake rubble to search for
victims, or slipping under doors on espionage surveillance. Far-fetched as that might
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
seem, the Japanese government has deemed the research credible enough to award $5
million to Shimoyama's microrobotics team and biologists at Tsukuba University, a
leading science center in central Japan. Money from the five-year grant started
coming in this month, and young researchers are lining up for a slot on Shimoyama's
team. The team breeds its own supply of several hundred cockroaches in plastic bins.
Not just any roach will do. Researchers use only the american cockroach (Perplaneta
americana) because it is bigger and hardier than most other species. From that supply,
they select roaches to equip with high-tech "backpacks"--tiny microprocessor and
electrode sets. Before surgery, researchers gas the roach with carbon dioxide. Wings
and antennae are removed. Where the antennae used to be researchers fit pulseemitting electrodes. With a remote, researchers send signals to the backpacks, which
stimulate the electrodes. The pulsing electrodes make the roach turn left, turn right,
scamper forward or spring backward. [13]
University of Reading scientists have developed a robot controlled by a
biological brain formed from cultured neurons. And this is a world's premiere. Other
research teams have tried to control robots with 'brains,' but there was always a
computer in the loop. This new project is the first one to examine 'how memories
manifest themselves in the brain, and how a brain stores specific pieces of data.' As
life expectancy is increasing in most countries, this new research could provide
insights into how the brain works and help aging people. In fact, the main goal of this
project is to understand better the development of diseases and disorders which affect
the brain such as Alzheimer or Parkinson diseases. It's interesting to note that this
project is being led by Professor Kevin Warwick, who became famous in 1998 when
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
a silicon chip was implanted in his arm to allow a computer to monitor him in order
to assess the latest technology for use with the disabled. These robots are developed
at the Cybernetic Intelligence Research Group, part of the School of Systems
Engineering at the University of Reading. The team has been led by Kevin Warwick,
Professor of Cybernetics (please also check his personal home page. He worked with
two lecturers in his group, Dr Victor Becerra and Dr Slawomir Nasuto, as well as
with Dr Ben Whalley, another lecturer in the School of Pharmacy.
The robot's biological brain is made up of cultured neurons which are
placed onto a multi electrode array (MEA). The MEA is a dish with approximately 60
electrodes which pick up the electrical signals generated by the cells. This is then
used to drive the movement of the robot. Every time the robot nears an object, signals
are directed to stimulate the brain by means of the electrodes. In response, the brain's
output is used to drive the wheels of the robot, left and right, so that it moves around
in an attempt to avoid hitting objects. The robot has no additional control from a
human or a computer, its sole means of control is from its own brain.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
4. HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS
The development of electronic brain implants, called neuroprostheses,
that can translate the intention to move into the actual movement of a robotic device,
or of a cursor on a computer screen. The hope is to give paralyzed patients greater
ability to interact with their environments and perhaps, ultimately, to bypass damaged
spinal cords and restore movement to lifeless limbs.
The concept of using thought to move a robotic device, a wheelchair, a
prosthetic, or a computer was once strictly the stuff of science fiction, but no longer.
BrainGate[TM] collects and analyzes the brainwaves of individuals with pronounced
physical disabilities, turning thoughts into actions. The potential to better
communicate, interact, and improve people's way of life is about to explode. Years of
advanced research by world-renowned experts at prestigious universities--including
Brown, Harvard, Emory, MIT, Columbia, and the University of Utah--has resulted in
the development of BrainGate[TM], a life-changing technology and device that gives
renewed hope to paraplegics, quadriplegics and others suffering from spinal cord
injuries and strokes. Eventually, it has the potential to revolutionize the way all of our
brains work. BrainGate has been featured on broadcasts such as 60 Minutes and in
publications including Popular Mechanics, Nature and Wired.
A pacemaker-like device that uses high-frequency electrical currents to
block brain signals to the stomach and pancreas through the vagus nerves helps
patients lose excess weight, without the aid of dietary or other lifestyle interventions
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
and with no significant adverse effects on heart rate or blood pressure, according to
results of a new open-label study. Patients who had the device implanted for 6 months
lost an average of almost 15% of their excess body weight, while about one-quarter
lost about 25%. Three patients lost more than 30% of their excess weight. The new
therapy, called intra-abdominal vagal blocking (VBLOC), has several advantages
over existing weight-loss strategies, said Michael Camilleri, MD, professor of
medicine and physiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and co-lead
author of the study. "First, it's minimally invasive and in fact can be done entirely
with the laparoscope or keyhole surgery; second, it doesn't produce any change to the
anatomy or the routing of the food through the upper digestive organs; and third, it is
completely reversible. "The study, which appears in the June issue of Surgery, is the
first of its kind in humans. The device works much like a pacemaker, which sends
electrical signals to the heart to ensure optimal rhythms. "The principle here is quite
similar," said Dr. Camilleri. "In some respects, it's like sending a scrambling message
into the vagus nerves to stop them from doing what they would normally do after we
eat. "Blocking the vagus nerve achieves 3 major goals, Dr. Camilleri explained to
Medscape Neurology & Neurosurgery. "The first is to stop the contractions of the
stomach and therefore prevent the efficient and rapid breakdown of food; second, by
blocking those contractions, we also slow down the emptying of food from the
stomach, and third, we block the production of enzymes that are necessary to digest
the food. "Researchers followed the subjects weekly for 4 weeks, every 2 weeks until
12 weeks, and then monthly, assessing body weight; physical parameters, including
electrocardiograms (ECG); and adverse events.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
Matthew Nagle played the video game Tetris yesterday simply by
thinking, controlling the on-screen action through a tiny chip implanted in his brain,
as his paraplegic body sat limp. The 24-year-old former Weymouth High School
football star, his spinal cord shredded during a knife attack three years ago, is a oneman experiment that may one day help to bring movement and a small dose of
freedom to thousands of patients trapped by full-body paralysis. Researchers released
promising data yesterday on the BrainGate device implanted in Nagle's head, finding
that their sole test subject was able to control an onscreen cursor using brain waves in
seven of eight test sessions. But much has happened since scientists recorded that
feat: Nagle has drawn computer art, opened e-mail and played Pong as well as Tetris,
he said in an interview yesterday. Next up, Super Mario Brothers. Researchers at
Foxborough-based Cyberkinetics hope that, one day, they will be able to connect
BrainGate to patients' arms and legs, permitting movement. "I don't care if I have to
use a cane. I'm going to walk. I'm going to do this," said Nagle, speaking softly
between gasps and gulps as a ventilator pumped oxygen into his lungs. "I know God
has a plan for me." This is a far-off future: Researchers must still test BrainGate on
dozens more patients and then reconfigure it to control limb-moving devices, a
complex endeavor that could take years. Nonetheless, the experiment on Nagle,
publicized at a research conference in Phoenix yesterday, offers a wondrous example
of progress in helping paralyzed patients. It is the first time a product made by a
privately owned firm has produced such a result. Nagle's journey to this frontier of
science began in a moment of tragic chaos on July 4, 2001, at Wessagussett Beach in
Weymouth. Nagle recalls a brawl breaking out, his friend under attack, fists flying,
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
someone screaming about a knife. Then everything went black. He had been stabbed
in the neck. The tip of the curved, 8-inch knife remains lodged in Nagle's spine.
Nicholas Cirignano, 23, was arrested and charged with assault with intent to murder
and assault with a deadly weapon. Nagle plans to be there. His anger fuels his quest to
walk: "I'm not going to let (someone) with a knife do this to me." Though Nagle is
feeble and under constant care at his home, a room at New England Sinai Hospital
and Rehabilitation Center in Stoughton, he retains the gruff manner of his football
days, his words pointed and occasionally profane. Nagle says he can scarcely describe
the experiment in which he is taking part. "It's unbelievable," he said. BrainGate was
invented by Dr. John Donoghue, a Brown University professor who is also chief
scientific officer at Cyberkinetics. In 2002, Donoghue's lab published a paper in
Nature, a scientific journal, demonstrating that unique chips he designed, when
implanted in monkeys' brains, allowed the primates to move an on-screen cursor. A
device just like the ones put in monkeys is now in Nagle's brain, and Cyberkinetics is
seeking four more patients to gather enough data to persuade the Food and Drug
Administration to approve BrainGate for wider testing. The company estimates that it
will have to carry out tests on up to 60 patients before winning approval. A hole was
drilled in Nagle's head and the aspirin-sized BrainGate chip was put into his primary
motor cortex, the part of the brain that controls movement. A hundred ultra-thin
electrodes attached to the chip pierced his brain, able to detect the electrical signals
generated by thoughts and then relay them through wires into a computer.
After a three-week recovery, Nagle was shown a cursor moving on
screen and told to think about the direction it moved. The computer attached to the
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
chip recorded the impulses he had when thinking about the cursor moving left, right,
up and down. Each direction was associated with a characteristic pattern of signals
from his brain. Then the computer was programmed to recognize each pattern and
move the cursor accordingly. He thought up; it moved up. "We're essentially
providing a way of connecting his brain to the outside world," said Tim Surgenor,
chief executive officer of Cyberkinetics. The data released yesterday show that Nagle
had control in seven of eight tests, moving a cursor to a designated spot, represented
during the tests as a bag of money. He also navigated the cursor around obstacles-bank robbers--on his way to the money. Nagle was also able to turn off and on a
television and control its volume using his thoughts. What came after, unreported as
yet by the scientists, involved more elaborate control on Nagle's part. He was able to
manipulate an imaginary paddle up and down in the Pong video game. Just two days
ago, he first played with the fast stream of falling puzzle pieces in Tetris. A series of
surgeries restored his ability to speak, and he is hoping that another set of procedures
will allow him to breathe on his own. Nagle said that participation in the BrainGate
experiment will one day help those like him and that his current predicament will
remind others of their good fortune to be healthy. "God uses some people's body to
show what life can be like," he said.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
CHAPTER III
ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
This chapter presents the analysis and findings along the present line of this study
considered pertinent or relevant by the researcher.
I.
Analysis
What happens when you place the equivalent of 1024 neurons in parallel on a
chip? Well, you get a new form of computing for cloud computing and sensor
networks as well as toys that can recognize cue cards, better artificial intelligence and
pattern recognition.
Imagine a chip that worked like our
brains and could do everything from
make our cloud services better, give
sensor networks sensibility, make
toys interact with the kids and give
cameras the power to track, count and spot people in a crowded mall. Meet the
CM1K, the silicon marketed by Folsom, Calif.-based start-up CogniMem, that is
going to give artificial intelligence, sensor networks and lower-power predictive
computing a big boost.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
CogniMem, a blending of Cognitive Memory, was created this year to market the
CM1K and will sell it to you in units of 1,000 for $80 a chip. The chip was developed
based on technology from IBM. It’s not the cheapest chunk of silicon out there, nor is
it really ready for most high-end applications. But the promise is that its way of
creating chips that can handle massively parallel memory functions could lead to
breakthroughs in the way computing is done, making it greener and more efficient for
certain kinds of problems.
Much like IBM, CogniMem is trying to build out chips that model the human
brain, and has a license from IBM to make its products. “Based on multiple
generations of IBM-patented ZISC technology, we have perfected this approach for
practical commercial use, providing unmatched performance at low power, and made
it available now.” said Bruce McCormick, co-founder, president and CEO of
CogniMem, noted in the press release.
The CM1K contains 1024 neurons, which can be daisy-chained together to make
giant systems. The company says the chips are good for massively parallel jobs such
as determining closest vectors in video searching, real-time surveillance and
analytics, data mining, fingerprint matching, hyperspectral image analysis, financial
services, weather forecasting, and a wide range of scientific computational tasks.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
Here’s where it gets technical
Late last week, CogniMems announced a way to group its chips called the CogniBlox
system. From the release:
“It’s composed of four CM1K chips or a total of 4,096 cognitive memory
processing elements per board in a trainable 3-layer network, each having 256
programmable 1-byte connections to the input. Systems of 1 million elements can be
configured allowing for 256 million connections every 10 microseconds with a
typical power consumption of 500 watts and 0.13 petaops of performance.”
From the point of the average consumer, this type of advance in silicon may not
mean much, but it opens up an entirely new world of computing that relies on sensors
and compute everywhere. Right now, we are tied to our machines, but as we evolve
new ways of helping chips process information in a more distributed system that uses
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
lower power, we can create entirely new applications and move a step closer to taking
the computers out of computing.
II.
Findings
There is no computer that works as efficiently as the human brain. The scientists'
goals are to build an artificial brain that will work just like the human brain.
University of Zurich, Neuroinformatics researchers have made a breakthrough on this
goal. They are now understanding how to configure neuromorphic chips that can
replicate the brain’s information processing capabilities in real-time. Researchers
validate this by creating a synthetic sensory processing system that demonstrates
cognitive abilities.
Most methods to neuroinformatics are restricted to the progress of neural network
replicas on computers that aim to incite complex nerve networks or supercomputers.
Only a select few researchers will follow the Zurich researchers’ method to develop
electronic circuits that are similar to the brain in terms of size, speed, and energy
consumption.
A professor at the Institute of Neuroinformatics, GiacomoIndiveri said,
"Our goal is to emulate the properties of biological neurons and synapses directly on
microchips."
The core challenge for researchers is how to construct networks made of
completely artificial, i.eneuromorphic, neurons in a way that will execute the
specified tasks. Lately, researchers have been effectively developing a neuromorphic
structure that can perform complex sensorimotor tasks in real time. This network can
also perform tasks that require short-term memory along with decision making traits
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
that are essential for cognitive tests. With this being said researchers can combine
neuromorphic neurons into the network that implemented neural processing modules
parallel to the “finite-state machines.”
Researchers demonstrate for the first time how a real-time hardware neuralprocessing coordination where the user can dictate the behavior can be fabricated.
Indiveri explains that thanks to their findings, neuromorphic chips can be designed
for a large class of behavior modes. Their findings are pivotal for the progression of
the new brain- stimulated technologies.
Today’s computing chips are incredibly complex and contain billions of nanoscale transistors, allowing for fast, high-performance computers, pocket-sized
smartphones that far outpace early desktop computers, and an explosion in handheld
tablets.
Despite their ability to perform thousands of tasks in the blink of an eye, none of
these devices even come close to rivaling the computing capabilities of the human
brain. At least not yet. But a Boise State University research team could soon change
that.
Electrical and computer engineering faculty Elisa Barney Smith, Kris Campbell
and Vishal Saxena are joining forces on a project titled “CIF: Small: Realizing Chipscale Bio-inspired Spiking Neural Networks with Monolithically Integrated Nanoscale Memristors.”
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
Team members are experts in machine learning (artificial intelligence), integrated
circuit design and memristor devices. Funded by a three-year, $500,000 National
Science Foundation grant, they have taken on the challenge of developing a new kind
of computing architecture that works more like a brain than a traditional digital
computer.
“By mimicking the brain’s billions of interconnections and pattern recognition
capabilities, we may ultimately introduce a new paradigm in speed and power, and
potentially enable systems that include the ability to learn, adapt and respond to their
environment,” said Barney Smith, who is the principal investigator on the grant.The
project’s success rests on a memristor – a resistor that can be programmed to a new
resistance by application of electrical pulses and remembers its new resistance value
once the power is removed. Memristors were first hypothesized to exist in 1972 (in
conjunction with resistors, capacitors and inductors) but were fully realized as nanoscale devices only in the last decade.
One of the first memristors was built in Campbell’s Boise State lab, which has the
distinction of being one of only five or six labs worldwide that are up to the task.The
team’s research builds on recent work from scientists who have derived mathematical
algorithms to explain the electrical interaction between brain synapses and neurons.
“By employing these models in combination with a new device technology that
exhibits similar electrical response to the neural synapses, we will design entirely new
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
computing chips that mimic how the brain processes information,” said Barney
Smith.
Even better, these new chips will consume power at an order of magnitude lower
than current computing processors, despite the fact that they match existing chips in
physical dimensions. This will open the door for ultra-low-power electronics intended
for applications with scarce energy resources, such as in space, environmental sensors
or biomedical implants.
Once the team has successfully built an artificial neural network, they will look to
engage neurobiologists in parallel to what they are doing now. A proposal for that
could be written in the coming year.
Barney Smith said they hope to send the first of the new neuron chips out for
fabrication within weeks.
CHAPTER IV
DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE RESEARCH
This chapter presents the discussions along the present line of this study considered
pertinent or relevant by the researcher.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
III.
Discussions
A. Rats Communicate Through Brain Chips
Pairs of rats can communicate through brain chips and collaborate to
perform a task, report researchers in today’s Scientific Reports. Brain activity
recorded in one rat was translated into a pattern of electrical pulses that were then
transmitted to another rat that had been trained to push a particular lever in response
to one of two patterns of electrical stimulation in its brain. The rats also worked
together, say the researchers. If the second rat chose the wrong lever, then the first rat
would change its brain function and behavior in the next trial so that the receiving
rodent was more likely to get it right, claim the scientists.
The research was led by Miguel Nicolelis, a neuroscientist at Duke
University Medical Center, who has previously described a brain-computer interface
through which a monkey could control a walking robot (see “The Power of Thought”)
and another setup in which a virtual sense of touch was fed into a monkey’s brain
through an electrical stimulating array (see “Giving Prosthetics a Sense of Touch”).
A handful of labs have been making impressive progress in reading and writing to the
brain in recent years with the aim of helping paralyzed people regain mobility via
thought-controlled robotics. Last year, two research teams reported that quadriplegic
patients could use brain implants to control robot limbs (see “Brain Chip Helps
Quadriplegics Move Robotic Arms with Their Thoughts” and “Patient Shows New
Dexterity with a Mind-Controlled Robot Arm”).
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
But today’s study, says Nicolelis, was not about improving braincomputer interface technology for patients but rather exploring new frontiers. “We
observed the emergence of physiological properties that we could not predict before
we did this,” he says, pointing to what he calls collaboration between the two
animals’ brains.
In the experiment, Nicolelis and his team trained a rat to choose between
a right-side or left-side lever to push depending on which of two LEDs lit up. If the
rat pushed the correct lever, it got a rewarding sip of water. The researchers recorded
the electrical activity of the rat’s motor cortex, the region of the brain that controls
movements, and translated the activity involved in pushing the right-side lever into
many pulses and pushing the left-side lever into fewer pulses. These pulses were then
sent to the implant in the brain of another rat in a separate chamber. That rat had been
trained to respond to pulse patterns in a similar way—more pulses meant push the
right-side lever.
With no cue from the LEDs in its cage, the second rat was able to choose
the correct lever 64 percent of the time, at which point both rats would get a water
reward (the information-sending rat would thus get two; the information receiving rat
would get only one). When the second rat got it wrong, the first rat noticed, says
Nicolelis, because it did not get a second reward. So in the next trial, the first rat
would respond more quickly to the LED cue and produce a greater amount of taskrelated neuron firing compared to background brain noise, he says, which made the
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
second rat more likely to choose the correct lever. This is what Nicolelis refers to as
collaboration.
The researchers also demonstrated the brain-to-brain communication
with whisker stimulation in the first rat. Like a cat, rats use their whiskers to
determine how wide an opening is, and the rodents can be trained to turn their head to
the left or right depending on whether a hole in their cage is narrow. Similar to the
first experiment, the brain activity of the first rat was translated into a particular
pattern of pulses sent to the second rat, which had been trained to poke its head left in
response to electrical pulses, and right in the absence of pulses. With these tests, the
second rat chose the correct side about 62 percent of the time.
With the whisker test, the team demonstrated that the rats need not be in
the same building—or even on the same continent—to collaborate. A rat in Brazil at
the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal sent brain
signals to a rat on the Duke campus in Durham, North Carolina.
However, the binary decisions made in the rat tests are not up-to-speed
with what brain-computer interfaces can do these days, wrote University of
Pittsburgh’s Andrew Schwartz, a pioneer in patient brain-computer interfaces, in an
e-mail to MIT Technology Review. “It may sound like ‘mental telepathy’ and
therefore seem exciting, but when looked at more carefully, it is very simplistic,” he
wrote. “As a communication channel, you could think of a locked-in patient trying to
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
communicate by blinking, where a blink means yes and no blink mean no. This kind
of information could be conveyed by recording from a single neuron in one rat and
buzzing electrical current in the receiver rat. If the rat feels the buzz, it means yes, no
buzz means no.”
But Nicolelis sees this demonstration as the beginning of a new line of
research that could lead to a new form of computing. He says his lab is working on
“swarms” of rats that could share motor and sensory information via brain-to-brain
interfaces. “If you put brains together, you could create a more powerful non-Turing
machine, an organic computer that computes by experience, by heuristic,” he says.
“That could be a very interesting architecture to explore.”
B. The Human Brain on a Chip
Even though computers have yet to rival the power of the human brain, a
recent breakthrough in chip design may prove promising in recreating the power and
efficiency of meatware.
Called neuromporphic chips, the new processors, developed in
collaboration between the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, are about the same
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
size as a neuron, and are capable of performing the same tasks a human brain can
accomplish.
One the main hurdles in developing their new processors was configuring
the processor network to simulate human neural activity. To do this the team in
Zurich built a network of artificial neurons which could be joined together to create a
processing module.
In their test, which asked the chip to identify which way a series of bar
was moving across a computer screen, the neuromorphic chip’s processing modules
successfully identified the bars’ movement. Bully for them, they managed to identify
visual input. What’s impressive, however, is that the chip successfully calculated a
solution in real-time, demonstrating its ability to merge both visual processing with
memory and context dependent decision-making, all of which are believe to be
elements of cognition.
"Thanks to our method, neuromorphic chips can be configured for a large
class of behavior modes. Our results are pivotal for the development of new braininspired technologies" says Giacomo Indiveri, a professor of Neuroinformatics at the
University of Zurich and ETH Zurich.
While the chips only contain 4000 “neurons,” a pittance when compared
to the billions in our own brains, everything has to start somewhere, and the chip
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
could prove instrumental in developing technology capable of mimicking or even
surpassing human neuroprocessing.
If neuromorphic chips could be scaled up, and artificial neurons be built
to contain millions of connections apiece, I wonder if chips like these could be
used to create true artificial intelligence systems, or even electronic repositories for
own brains? In the future it just might be possible to download your own brain into a
neuromorphic computing environment, where your consciousness might continue
well beyond its usual expiration date.
If you’d like to get away from my sci-fi rambling and look deeper into
this subject, the Zurich team’s work was recently published in the Proceedings of the
Nation Academy of Sciences of the US.
C. Intel: Chips in brains will control computers by 2020
Computerworld - By the year 2020, you won't need a keyboard and mouse to
control your computer, say Intel Corp. researchers. Instead, users will open documents
and surf the Web using nothing more than their brain waves.
Scientists at Intel's research lab in Pittsburgh are working to find ways to read
and harness human brain waves so they can be used to operate computers, television sets
and cell phones. The brain waves would be harnessed with Intel-developed sensors
implanted in people's brains.
The scientists say the plan is not a scene from a sci-fi movie -- Big Brother
won't be planting chips in your brain against your will. Researchers expect that
consumers will want the freedom they will gain by using the implant.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
"I think human beings are remarkable adaptive," said Andrew Chien, vice president of
research and director of future technologies research at Intel Labs. "If you told people 20
years ago that they would be carrying computers all the time, they would have said, 'I
don't want that. I don't need that.' Now you can't get them to stop [carrying devices].
There are a lot of things that have to be done first but I think [implanting chips into
human brains] is well within the scope of possibility."
Intel research scientist Dean Pomerleau told Computerworld that users will
soon tire of depending on a computer interface, and having to fish a device out of their
pocket or bag to access it. He also predicted that users will tire of having to manipulate an
interface with their fingers.
Instead, they'll simply manipulate their various devices with their brains.
"We're trying to prove you can do interesting things with brain waves," said Pomerleau.
"Eventually people may be willing to be more committed ... to brain implants. Imagine
being able to surf the Web with the power of your thoughts."
To get to that point Pomerleau and his research teammates from Intel,
Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, are currently working on
decoding human brain activity.
Pomerleau said the team has used Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
(FMRI) machines to determine that blood flow changes in specific areas of the brain
based on what word or image someone is thinking of. People tend to show the same brain
patterns for similar thoughts, he added.
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
For instance, if two people think of the image of a bear or hear the word bear or even hear
a bear growl, a neuroimage would show similar brain activity. Basically, there are
standard patterns that show up in the brain for different words or images.
Pomerleau said researchers are close to gaining the ability to build brain
sensing technology into a head set that culd be used to manipulate a computer. The next
step is development of a tiny, far less cumbersome sensor that could be implanted inside
the brain.
D. Brain chip Essences
Everyone must become aware of the covert implantation program of
these horrible devices that connect your thoughts to the implant control agency. Yes,
the mind/brain/computer interface is far beyond what most can imagine.
The most targeted individuals (TIs) would likely be the outspoken
activists. They would be eventually classified as schizophrenic while undergoing
electronic torture and used as an unwitting spy against their associates. Eventually,
they will be conditioned through dreams and subliminal brain-chip communications
to turn them into a patsy for some fascist scheme. Organized crime can use these
brain-chips to induct TIs into their organization, control and punish electronically or
economically/socially until he or she complies or dies. Brain chip technology as of
2008 can be a self contained, passively powered supercomputer… wireless…
(hopefully satellites require too much power to communicate) which monitors and
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
interacts with brain synapses. They may also contain some kind of nano-microwave
camera technology as well. Not only can this technology decrypt your synaptic
patterns for each thought… it can be turned around so the computer brain simulator
program creates auditory sounds and sentences with distinct directions and distances.
Further, the chip can control the body to walk around while it induces the mind into
unconsciousness.
This type of brain-chip can interface with the visual centers of the brain
to play your favorite movie while your eyes are closed. You can also have a menu
placed in your visual center so you can mentally select your choice of… movies to
watch in darkness and silence (for example). It’s all in your head.
Brain Chip: Biological Kohonen’s Chip The human brain contains more than one
hundred billion neurons and 1014 synapses. Even without regard to the size of the
genome, it can be easily concluded that a deterministic blueprint for connectivity of
such an enormous number of networks is unrealistic. Therefore, as in the case of
structure formation, self-organizing processes must play a significant role in
developing functional connectivity of neurons. Among the many algorithms in neural
net models, the concept generally referred to as Kohonen’s self-organizing map,
provides the most plausible self-organization processes for creating associative
memories, the
configuration of which are virtually identical to that found in neurophysiological
studies (7).
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
Vortex waves in the brain chip play the equivalent role of climbing fibers in the
cerebellar chip with one notable difference. The physics of a wave gives the brain
chip a two dimensional property. At the same time, the vortex wave fulfills the
condition necessary for the distance dependent learning weighting of Kohonen’s map
The CEO-LGS system fills the missing role of the climbing fibers equivalent in the
cerebral cortex. The single column unit CEO, as schematically depicted in Figure 16,
has the configuration of a two dimensional cerebellar chip. Instead of one to one
activation of a Purkinje cell by a linearly connected climbing fiber as in the cerebellar
chip, spatially graded activation through the ELDER system of a group of pyramidal
cells within a single brain chip can be effectively achieved by the CEO-LGS system.
This configuration is highly compatible with the self-organizing neural net of
Kohonen type for effectively creating
associative memory, the configuration of which has been repeatedly validated by
neurophysiological studies.
The Legacy of Linus C. Pauling Double Nobel Price laureate (Chemistry and Peace),
Linus Carl Pauling, was deeply intrigued by the fact that the inert gas, Xenon, was an
excellent general anesthetic. He concluded that the only property common to all
anesthetic agents, including Xenon, was their effect on water crystallization (8). The
hydrate-microcrystal (aqueous-phase) theory did not receive significant attention.
Nevertheless, as Pauling himself stated (9), “the hydrate-microcrystal idea should be
an important part of the accepted theory of general anesthesia when the theory is
finally formulated.” One of the main reasons why the hydrate-microcrystal theory
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
did not receive nod of approval from scientific society was because Pauling
incorrectly implied the effect of water condensation on neuronal membrane
potentials. Had Pauling known the Vortex Model and brain chip theory, he would
immediately have realized that water condensation within CEO and ELDER to be the
critical factor. Under the Vortex Theory/Brain Chip concept, the consciousness can
be defined as the steady, random, spontaneous discharges of cortical pyramidal cells
through ELDER mediated electron flow triggered by the steady flow of the CEOLGS system. Establishment of a steady state within the LGS of the brain requires a
certain thermodynamic steady state or homeostasis. The thermal gradients required to
produce a convective force are dependent on the presence of an appropriately heated
solid body core. In the context of the free convective self-organization schema, the
reticular activation system (RAS), or reticular formation, and its connectivity within
the thalamus likely play the primary role of a solid body with steady temperature for
generating convective flow. The state of consciousness is dependent on the
establishment of the requisite thermodynamics, and, resultant establishment of steady
state cortical activities through the ELDER system. A highly plausible explanation for
the basic mechanism of anesthetic agents is, as Pauling anticipated, their effect on the
kinetic viscosity (Reynold’s number) of a fluid or gas involved in propagating an
essential steady flow because of water microcrystal formation. Such an alteration in
kinetic viscosity produces alteration in the kinetics of the steady flow and, hence,
ELDER activities. Pauling’s microcrystal theory also provides an answer to the long
unsolved mystery in anesthesia: Why anesthetic effect is enhanced when the subject
is placed in an environment of lower atmospheric pressure. Pauling had shown that
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
hydrate microcrystal formation due to admixture with anesthetic agents, including
alcohol, is dependent on atmospheric pressure. At lower atmospheric pressure, the
identical concentration of an anesthetic agent results in more ready microcrystal
formation.
Implication for functional MRI: Aquaporin as a mediator of autoregulation One of the
regional phenomena known to occur in association with brain activities is the
phenomenon generally referred to as autoregulation, the main feature of which is an
increase in regional blood flow (11). Although the exact controlling mechanisms of
autoregulation are not known, there have been many unambiguous observations of the
coupling of physiological increase in regional blood flow and regional brain
activities. In 1961 Sokoloff introduced autoradiograpic images of the primary visual
cortex exhibiting an increase in regional blood flow well corresponding to retinal
stimulation (12). This observation became the world first “functional image”, and
established the concept of brain activation study. The revolutionary advances in
computer technology made possible for autoregulation based functional imaging,
pioneered by Sokoloff, to be performed routinely in humans non-invasively. The first
representative technology was positron emission tomography (PET), especially the
one based on infusion of O15 labeled water (H2O15-PET).
Figure 17 This simplified hypothesis states that oxygen supply in relation to an
increase in activation-induced perfusion (flow in Figure) exceeds oxygen
consumption associated with neuronal activities. As a result, regional deoxy-Hb
levels paradoxically decrease in association with neuronal activities (brain activation).
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
However, that regional deoxy-Hb decline associated with increase in regional blood
flow can simply be explained by the well-known Munro-Kellie doctrine without
additionally introducing the concept of oxygen consumption (see Figure 18).
Accordingly, fMRI should be considered to be a blood flow based functional imaging
method virtually identical to H2O15-PET.
Widely adopted fMRI methodologies detect pixels which show a statistically
significant increase (not decrease) in signal intensity on T2* weighted images. In
other words, the technique detects a decline in relative deoxy-Hb concentrations in a
given voxel. Since an increase in oxygen consumption associated with regional
neural activities results in an increase in deoxy-Hb concentrations and, hence, a
decline in signal intensity on T2 weighted images, fMRI in fact detects a phenomenon
totally opposite to that predicted based on oxygen
consumption. The reverse observed phenomenon is generally attributed to an
“oversupply of oxygen“ brought about by an increase in regional blood flow (Figure
17) (13). Therefore,
the majority of, if not all, fMRI studies detect regional brain activities based on
regional blood flow. It is well known that an increase in regional blood flow results
in spontaneous reduction in venous blood volume in accordance with the MunroKellie doctrine (Figure 18) (14). It is clear that a decline in relative deoxy-Hb
concentrations in a given voxel, the basis of fMRI, is readily explainable as a
physiological epiphenomenon accompanying increase in regional blood flow, without
the need to invoke changes in blood oxygenation. Like its sister methods, such as
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
H2O15-PET, fMRI is another functional imaging method based on regional blood
flow.
Figure 19 Typical time series of an activated pixel in the primary motor cortex. Red:
raw data. Blue: boxcar type model function. Note the delay in activation signal
changes compared to actual task performance.
Figure 20: Subdivision of primary motor cortex Representative independent
component fMRI images within the right primary sensorimotor cortex (SMI) obtained
by independent component-cross correlation-sequential epoch (ICS) analysis. The
entire right SMI was covered by two consecutive 5 mm thick axial slices placed 2.5
mm apart. ICS analysis identifies functionally independent, spatially discrete
components (independent component fMRI images). Activated areas are
quantitatively color-coded according to the magnitude of activation using a
differential color schema for each functionally discrete independent component. Red
graphs indicate representative time series of independent components corresponding
to the accompanying fMRI image. Blue lines represent the 6 second delayed boxcar
model function applied to cross correlation analysis. The abscissa indicates time in
seconds and the ordinate indicates percent mean intensity changes. MI-4a, 4 anterior
area of the primary motor cortex; MI-4p, 4 posterior area of the primary motor cortex;
3a, 3a area of the primary sensory cortex; SI, the “classical” primary sensory cortex
(Brodmann areas 1, 2 and 3b). To provide better visualization of the three
dimensional (3D) relationship, part of the activation map of slice 1 is placed over that
of slice 2 (upper left). The schematic gray block (upper right) shows the 3D spatial
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
position of SMI and the localization of the independent areas of activation. CS:
central sulcus. MI-4a, 4 anterior area of the primary motor cortex; MI-4p, 4 posterior
area of the primary motor cortex; 3a, 3a area of the primary sensory cortex; SI, the
“classical” primary sensory cortex (Brodmann areas 1, 2 and 3b).
What is the mechanism of neural activities associated increase in regional blood
flow? Again, the vortex theory gives a highly plausible hypothesis of the molecular
mechanisms of autoregulation, namely, temporal and spatial coupling of neural
activity and blood flow. It is well known that the response in regional blood flow
corresponding to neural activities shows a delay of four to six seconds (Figure 19).
Nevertheless, once activated, increases in blood flow has a relatively low time
constant consonant with flow changes associated with caliber changes in blood
vessels. This indicates that the molecular mechanisms responsible for blood flow
change possess at least two cascades of processes the final result of which is an
increase in vessel caliber7. Vessels within the region of cortex which is the target of
this discussion do not possess a muscular layer that controls vessel caliber.
Therefore, theoretically, vessel caliber change can be accomplished by either: 1)
increase in inflow controlled by the proximal arterial component resulting in increase
vessel caliber due to passive changes in the flexible vessel walls; or 2) physical
structure, as yet to be defined. One’s intuition may accept the former. Several
studies, however, indicate that regional flow changes coupled with given neural
activities occur in the order of less than 1 mm3 (Figure 20), clearly indicating that the
former possibility is not the case. Accordingly, one has to accept the latter, requiring
identification of non-muscular structures responsible for caliber changes. The best
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
candidate is aquaporin-4 (assembly) regulated water contents of the structures
surrounding vessels. Such a structure is astrocyte feet (Figure 8). According to the
Vortex Theory (1), one of the main constituents of the fluid flowing within the COE
and LGS is likely to be CO28 (REF). Following arrival of input, an entropy-vortex
wave is created and travels along the CEO (Figure 12). If CO2 content within the
fluid is at near saturation, this perturbation results in release of CO2 from the fluid
analogous to champagne stirred by a bubble cutter (Figure 21). How aquaporin-4
(assembly) will be activated is not totally understood at this point. Nevertheless,
accumulating data suggest two potential candidates, namely, water molecules and
Figure 21: Champagne and bubble cuter Women often carried a bubble cutter for
drinking champagne at social functions in order to be spared the embarrassment of
eructating, or burping, in public.
CO2. Carbon dioxide (CO2), rather than oxygen (O2), is believed to have an
important role in regional blood flow alteration (11,15). Should aquaporin-4
surrounding vessels indeed be regulated by CO2, the physical pressure imposed on
vessels by astrocyte feet could be reduced resulting in increased blood flow (Figure
22). This can effectively explain the observed spatial and temporal coupling of neural
activities and blood flow (autoregulation).
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
Figure 22 Similar to the release of bubbles into the air effected by stirring champagne
using a bubble cutter, an entropy-vortex wave (solid arrow) can release CO2 (red)
from extracellular fluid where CO2 is under near saturation. While the entropyvortex wave introduces activation of ELDER, CO2 can also affect aquaporin channels
of surrounding vessels, thereby effectively producing coupling of neural activities and
blood flow with spatial as well as temporal concordance.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
This chapter presents the conclusions and recommendations along the present line of this
study considered pertinent or relevant by the researcher.
I.
Conclusions
Brain implants, often referred to as neural implants, are technological
devices that connect directly to a biological subject's brain--usually placed on the
surface of the brain, or attached to the brain's cortex. . Some brain implants involve
creating interfaces between neural systems and computer chips, which are part of a
wider research field called brain-computer interfaces. A typical neural implant
consists of an array of electrodes that works with the nervous system, either by
recording neuronal activity (recording) or by electrically stimulating them. Electrodes
connect the electrochemical functions within the tissue and the electronic system. A
circuit chip with site selection, amplifiers, and multiplexers works with some form of
signal processing/embedded computing. Finally, a wireless link usually handles
bidirectional data and power input. Implanting neural implants in the brain itself
generally requires electrode sites every 200 um or so for recording, and perhaps every
400 um for stimulation.
The BrainGate Neural Interface creates a direct link between a person's brain and a
computer, translating neural activity into action. A person without use of his limbs
but fitted with a BrainGate, can now play a videogame or change channels on TV
using only his mind. The components of the neural interface are: 1. The chip: A 4millimeter square silicon chip studded with 100 hair-thin microelectrodes is
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
embedded in Nagle's primary motor cortex--the region of the brain responsible for
controlling movement, 2. The connector: When Nagle thinks "move cursor up and
left" (toward email icon), his cortical neurons fire in a distinctive pattern; the signal is
transmitted through the pedestal plug attached to his skull, 3. The converter: The
signal travels to a shoebox-sized amplifier mounted on Nagle's wheelchair, where it's
converted to optical data and bounced by fiber-optic cable to a computer, and 4. The
computer: BrainGate learns to associate patterns of brain activity with particular
imagined movements--up, down, left, right--and to connect those movements to a
cursor.
Applications of chip brain implant include controlling movements
through thought alone. Systems that allow a brain to control a computer are inching
ever closer to reality, but their most important applications may be different from
those envisaged by science fiction. Monkeys can control a robot arm as naturally as
their own limbs using only brain signals, a pioneering experiment has shown.
University of Reading scientists have developed a robot controlled by a biological
brain formed from cultured neurons. Other application of brain implants are already
in use in the healthcare industry. The hope is to give paralyzed patients greater ability
to interact with their environments and perhaps, ultimately, to bypass damaged spinal
cords and restore movement to lifeless limbs.
For the researcher, he concluded the following:
THE EFFECTS IF BRAIN CHIP TECHNOLOGY TO THE HUMAN BODY
-
Brain implants enhance capability of human organs and senses.
-
It has a significant role to play in future genetic engineering fields and
neuroscience.
-
The implants may enhance your capabilities, but they will expire when you do.
-
It will enhance memory.
-
It might enable “cyberthink”- invisible communication.
-
Enable consistent and constant access to information where and when needed.
-
It will increase the dynamic range of senses, enabling, for example, seeing IR,
UV, and chemical spectra.
-
It will increase the dynamic ranging of senses.
-
Giving light to blind and giving paralyzed patients full mental control of limbs.
-
No genetic modifications in the next generation.
-
Rescue missions(remote controlled rat).
-
The advantage of implants is that they take the decision making power away from
the addict. Chips take away one's free will. It enables a person to make a better
choice not to take drugs at all.
II.
Recommendations