Neuralink is a technology company founded by Elon Musk that’s building an implementable, brain-computer interface capable of translating thoughts into action. The private venture claims its neural device will allow people with paraplegia to regain movements and restore vision to those born blind.
The Neuralink technology is capable of recording and decoding neural signals and then transmitting information back to the brain using electrical stimulation.
The implant itself is called “The Link”. This coin-sized brain chip is surgically installed under the skull in the back of the head, where it receives information from neural threads that fan out into different sections of the subject’s brain in control of motor skills.
Each wire contains 1,024 electrodes, which are sensors capable of recording and emitting electrical current into the brain, and according to Neuralink website “These electrodes are so fine and flexible that they can’t be inserted by human hands.” That’s why Neuralink has built a neurosurgical robot that’s designed to do the work.
The company is also designing an app which allows users to manipulate mouse and keyboards using only their mind.
How does neuralink work?
The electrical chemical signals in our nervous system sparks when when two neurons communicate with one another across gaps between nerve cells known as “synapses”. This brain activity is captured by electrodes, or sensors that detect voltages, measuring the change in spikes of when these voltages fire.
In other words, our brain activity data is captured not only when we take action, but also when we think about taking action.
What Neuralink does is that it measures the brain activity when subjects think about doing the activity and implements it. It looks like an easy job to do but in fact working with brain cells and trying to control them as we wish is something that could only be possible in Sci-fi movies, and thanks to the Neuralink company, now it is a real possible technology of the 21st century.
