Neuralink Isn't Telling Us Something...
Summary
TLDRElon Musk's Neuralink faces challenges with its invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, as evidenced by the thread retraction issues in its first human patient. Former Neuralink co-founder Benjamin Rapaport's new venture, Precision Neuroscience, offers a safer, less invasive alternative with the Layer 7 cortical interface, which collects high-resolution neural data without penetrating the brain. Rapaport's technology has already been tested successfully in 14 human patients, potentially revolutionizing BCI for medical applications.
Takeaways
- đ§ Elon Musk's Neuralink is pushing the boundaries of neuroscience with its brain implant technology, but also faces challenges regarding safety and feasibility.
- đĄ A new competitor, Precision Neuroscience, founded by Neuralink's co-founder Benjamin Rapaport, is introducing a safer, less invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) technology.
- đšââïž Dr. Benjamin Rapaport, with an impressive academic and professional background, left Neuralink in 2018, which suggests his departure may indicate concerns about the direction of the company.
- đ Traditional BCI methods, such as the Utah array, involve invasive procedures that can cause physical damage and scar tissue, limiting their long-term effectiveness.
- 𧔠Neuralink's initial approach used ultra-thin, flexible threads to minimize damage, but these threads have shown to retract from the brain, raising safety and efficacy concerns.
- đ Anonymous sources suggest that thread retraction has been an ongoing issue in Neuralink's animal testing, indicating potential problems that were not fully addressed before human trials.
- đ€ The patient, Nolan, was not informed about the possibility of thread retraction, raising ethical questions about patient consent and transparency.
- đ Neuralink's proposed solution involves increasing the depth of the thread implantation, which could double the potential damage and side effects.
- đĄïž Precision Neuroscience's Layer 7 cortical interface is a non-invasive, thin film array that sits on top of the brain and collects data without penetrating the brain matter.
- đ Precision has successfully implanted and tested their BCI with multiple human patients, demonstrating the feasibility of high-resolution data collection without invasive procedures.
- đ The advancements made by Precision Neuroscience could significantly lower the barriers to entry for BCI technology, making it more accessible and potentially revolutionizing the field.
Q & A
What is Neuralink's primary goal with their brain implant technology?
-Neuralink aims to push the boundaries of modern neuroscience and brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, with the goal of creating a minimally invasive implant that can effectively communicate with neurons within the human brain.
Who is Benjamin Rapaport and what is his significance to Neuralink?
-Benjamin Rapaport is one of the nine founding members of Neuralink. He holds multiple advanced degrees from prestigious institutions and was a resident neurosurgeon before joining Neuralink, bringing significant credibility to the team. His departure from the company in 2018 raised concerns about the direction and safety of Neuralink's technology.
Why did Benjamin Rapaport leave Neuralink?
-Benjamin Rapaport left Neuralink primarily due to concerns about patient safety, particularly regarding the invasiveness and potential risks associated with Neuralink's brain implant technology.
What is the main challenge with invasive BCI implants like those proposed by Neuralink?
-The main challenge with invasive BCI implants is the physical damage they cause to the brain tissue upon penetration. This can lead to scar tissue formation and rejection by the brain, reducing the effectiveness of the implant over time.
What was the issue with Neuralink's first human patient, Nolan Arbau?
-Nolan Arbau, Neuralink's first human patient, experienced the successful implantation of 64 threads carrying 1,024 electrodes into his cerebral cortex. However, by February, 85% of those threads had retracted from the brain, indicating a significant issue with maintaining a stable connection.
What is the proposed solution by Neuralink to address the thread retraction issue?
-Neuralink's proposed solution, which has been approved by the FDA, is to increase the depth of the thread implantation to 8 mm, doubling the previous depth, in an attempt to achieve a more stable connection within the brain.
What is the Layer 7 Cortical Interface developed by Precision Neuroscience?
-The Layer 7 Cortical Interface is an ultra-thin film array developed by Precision Neuroscience, founded by Benjamin Rapaport. It is designed to sit on top of the brain, collecting high-resolution data from neurons without causing physical damage to the brain matter.
How does the Layer 7 Cortical Interface differ from Neuralink's approach?
-Unlike Neuralink's invasive approach, the Layer 7 Cortical Interface is a non-invasive BCI technology that does not penetrate the brain. It sits on the surface of the brain, effectively 'eavesdropping' on neuronal conversations without causing damage.
What is the advantage of Precision Neuroscience's approach in terms of patient safety?
-Precision Neuroscience's approach offers a safer alternative to Neuralink's technology. The Layer 7 Cortical Interface can be easily placed on and removed from the brain without causing damage, making it a less invasive and more patient-friendly option.
How has Precision Neuroscience been able to test its technology with human patients?
-Precision Neuroscience has been able to test its technology by incorporating the implantation of the Layer 7 Cortical Interface into routine open brain surgeries, such as benign tumor removals or Parkinson's disease treatments, where patients are already undergoing procedures that expose their brains.
What is the significance of the advancements made by Precision Neuroscience in the field of BCI?
-The advancements made by Precision Neuroscience significantly lower the barrier to entry for BCI technology, proving that high-resolution data can be collected from neurons without invasive procedures, which has the potential to revolutionize the field and make BCI a major focus in the coming decade.
Outlines
đ§ Neuralink's Safety and Innovation Challenges
Elon Musk's Neuralink is pushing the frontiers of neuroscience with brain implant technology, yet faces significant safety and ethical challenges. The company's initial approach involved invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) implants, which caused physical damage to the brain tissue. The departure of co-founder Benjamin Rapaport in 2018, a highly credentialed neurosurgeon, indicated potential concerns over safety. Despite Neuralink's minimalist design and maximalist performance goals, the first human trial with patient zero, Nolan Arbau, revealed issues with thread retraction, suggesting that the technology might not be as effective or safe as initially thought. The narrative underscores the complexities and risks associated with human experimentation in cutting-edge technology.
đŹ The Emergence of a Safer BCI Alternative
In the wake of Neuralink's challenges, a new competitor, Precision Neuroscience, founded by Benjamin Rapaport, has developed a safer, less invasive BCI technology called the Layer 7 Cortical Interface. This ultra-thin film array, only 1/5 the thickness of a human hair, sits on the brain's surface, capturing electrical signals without penetrating the brain matter, thus avoiding physical damage. The Layer 7 has been successfully implanted in multiple human patients, demonstrating high-resolution data collection without the need for deep brain penetration. Rapaport's innovation challenges Neuralink's approach, suggesting that effective BCI can be achieved with minimal intrusion, potentially revolutionizing the field of brain-computer interfaces.
đ ïž Precision's Layer 7: A Paradigm Shift in BCI
Precision Neuroscience's Layer 7 Cortical Interface represents a significant shift in the development of brain-computer interfaces. The technology, which can be implanted and removed without harm during routine neural surgeries, has been tested in 14 human patients, offering a non-invasive method to collect neural signals. With the ability to map physical movements to electrical signals in real-time, Precision's approach provides a practical and immediate application for patients with disabilities or illnesses. The Layer 7's success in collecting high-resolution data without brain penetration indicates a future where BCI technology can significantly improve the quality of life for those in need, without the risks associated with invasive procedures.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄNeuralink
đĄBrain-Computer Interface (BCI)
đĄBenjamin Rapaport
đĄInvasive BCI
đĄSafety
đĄNeuroscience
đĄElectrodes
đĄScar Tissue
đĄPrecision Neuroscience
đĄLayer 7 Cortical Interface
đĄWireless Transmitter
Highlights
Elon Musk's Neuralink is pushing the boundaries of neuroscience with its brain implant technology.
Neuralink faces challenges with human experimentation and safety concerns in brain-computer interface technology.
Benjamin Rapaport, one of Neuralink's founding members, left the company in 2018 due to safety concerns.
Rapaport's extensive credentials in science and medicine add weight to his departure from Neuralink.
The human brain's electrical activity is the key to brain-computer interfaces, but it remains a mystery after a century of study.
Neuralink's design aims to minimize damage to the brain with ultra-thin and flexible threads forç”æ connections.
The first human patient with Neuralink experienced thread retraction, indicating potential issues with the implant's design.
Neuralink's plan to increase thread depth to 8 mm raises further safety and damage concerns.
Benjamin Rapaport's new company, Precision Neuroscience, offers a safer, less invasive BCI technology.
Precision's Layer 7 cortical interface is an ultra-thin film array that sits on top of the brain without penetrating it.
Layer 7 has been successfully implanted in human patients with minimal invasiveness and easy removal.
Precision Neuroscience has demonstrated that high-resolution brain data can be collected without penetrating the brain.
Neuralink's approach may still be necessary for Musk's vision of merging the human brain with AI, but it's not the only path.
Precision Neuroscience's innovations have lowered the barrier to entry for BCI technology.
The Layer 7 interface can be placed on different regions of the brain without compromising the skull's integrity.
Precision has already tested its technology with 14 human patients, showing its safety and effectiveness.
Brain computer interface technology is set to be one of the biggest stories of the coming decade.
Transcripts
Elon musk's neuralink brain implant is
pushing the boundaries of what modern
Neuroscience can achieve I think that's
something we can all agree on but the
company might also be pushing the
boundaries of what is considered to be
safe or even possible when it comes to
brain computer interface technology
neuralink is in a vulnerable position
right now as they begin to face the
realities of human experimentation and
in the mid of all this a new competitor
is rising up a ghost from Elon musk's
past has returned to take the throne
with a better safer brain implant this
could be a
problem let's begin with a story this is
Benjamin Rapaport you probably don't
recognize him but he was one of the nine
founding fathers of neuralink back in
the year 2017 Elon Musk says that he
interviewed over 1,000 people before
deciding on the team of eight doctors
scientists and Engineers that would join
him in the creation of a new brain
implant
technology and looking at Ben's resume
it's easy to see why he made the cut a
master's degree in physics and
Mathematics from Harvard a master of
science from Oxford a PhD in engineering
from MIT and a medical degree from
Harvard Medical School he was working as
a resident neurosurgeon in the years
before neuralink came to be so so that
is all very important to establish that
this is not just another tech bro this
is a person who brings massive
credibility to the table so when we tell
you that Benjamin left neuralink in
March 2018 just one year after the
company was announced to the public we
know that this decision carries some
weight and the primary reason for Ben's
departure is also the key to today's
story safety without getting too deep
into the Weeds on how brain computer
interfaces work we know that the brain
is teeming with electrical activity
everything that you do everything you
feel everything that you know it all
begins with trillions of electrical
signals bouncing around through billions
of neurons inside of the gray matter of
the human brain this has been known for
a hundred years hansberger started his
experiments with electroencephalography
in 1924 but even after a Century of
observation the human brain is still
mysterious we know that the best Clues
to solve our mystery are found closest
to the source inside the human skull we
can observe brain activity from the
outside by placing electrodes on the
scalp but the signals are muffled
imagine you're living in an apartment
and your next door neighbor is having a
party you can try to listen in through
the wall and that will provide some
information about what's going on you
might know what kind of music they're
listening to the approximate size of the
group if they're laughing or arguing
imagine that the people attending the
party are neurons in a human brain by
observing them through a wall or a skull
you can measure the overall Vibe of the
party but you will never know the
details of what went on inside but if
you were able to walk through the door
and enter the room suddenly there would
be infinitely more detail to learn about
the party you would hear the music
clearly you would see the people you
would know what they are saying and once
inside you could go one step further and
walk right up to a neuron and start a
conversation from here there's no
telling how much you can learn this is
all a metaphor for the invasiveness of
BCI but instead of opening a door we
have to cut through skin and bone and in
order to initiate that personal
conversation with a neuron we need to
penetrate the brain matter this all
comes at a cost we know that Elon Musk
is a minimalist when it comes to design
F but he's a maximalist when it comes to
Performance the fastest cars the most
powerful rockets and his approach to
neuralink is no different Elon would
never be satisfied with just EES
dropping on the party he's going
straight to interrogating the neurons as
close up as possible the cost of an
invasive BCI implant is always going to
be damage to the brain there is no way
to skirt around the fact that when you
penetrate the brain tissue you cause
physical damage the first invasive brain
implant dates back to the early 2000s
the Utah array created by Black Rock
Neuroscience it's like a very small bed
of nails that would penetrate the outer
cortex of the brain with tiny rigid pins
the depth of the implant would typically
be around 1.5 mm and these implants are
known to cause scar tissue and physical
rejection from the brain material so
they can't be used as long-term
permanent Solutions once the scar tissue
forms the ability to have a conversation
with the neuron is greatly reduced this
is the primary challenge that neuralink
was hoping to overcome with their own
BCI design one that used ultra thin and
Ultra flexible threads to interface with
the brain tissue the idea being that
these microscopic threads would carry
the electrode connections into the brain
so gently that the body wouldn't even
notice and hence wouldn't try to reject
the implant or form any scar tissue and
this Theory could prove to be true but
so far it's proven to be ineffective at
maintaining a stable connection to the
brain neuralink patient zero Nolan arbau
experienced the successful implantation
of 64 nuring threads these threads
carried a total of 1,24 individual
electrodes directly into his cerebral
cortex and this happened for the first
time in late January 2024 by February
85% of those threads had retracted from
the brain they fell out and this is a
problem that neurolink may have been
expecting several Anonymous sources who
claimed to work at the company told
Reuters that the thread retraction had
been an issue with monkey and pig test
subjects for years this is unconfirmed
reporting but it wouldn't be surprising
given the severity of the retraction
issue with Nolan's implant it would be
weird for this to have happened for the
first time so many years into the
testing phase what's even more troubling
is that Nolan has said that he was never
even informed on the possibility of
thread retraction he was completely
taken by surprise when the problem
occurred neuralink claims to have a
solution though and this has been
approved by the FDA but it's not exactly
an ideal fix and this relates directly
to Benjamin rapaport's concerns with
patient safety in this field so the
original Utah array with the rigid
little pins penetrated 1 and2 mm deep
into the brain neuralink took that even
further with their flexible threads
reaching depths between 3 and 5 mm into
Nolan's brain matter but this was
clearly not effective so the new plan is
to place the threads 8 mm deep into
neural Link's second human patient for
those with trouble visualizing What A
millimeter is 8 mm is just a bit less
than 1/3 of an inch so that's getting
pretty deep nerling started off at
Double the industry standard and now
they're already going to double that
again and double the depth means double
the potential damage to the brain matter
double the potential for negative side
effects now this is still not nearly as
deep as other current electrode
procedures like deep brain stimulation
for example but it's still very much
unknown what kind of damage 64
insertions each 8 mm deep across a
relatively small segment of the brain
might do
it's also not known if this change will
even solve the problem for nuring if we
are still seeing retraction with the
threads in the next patient then it's
possible that nurlink design as
Innovative as it may be just doesn't
work this is obviously not the kind of
outcome that a business leader like Elon
Musk is going to accept but in science
there is always the potential of being
proven wrong it's the reason that we do
experiments in the first place there's a
very real potential here that neuralink
is just another very good idea in theory
that didn't work out in reality there
are no shortage of these failed ideas in
history and it's an outcome that we
should be prepared for what if you
didn't need to penetrate the brain 8 mm
or 3 mm or even 1 mm what if you could
get all of the information you need just
by walking through the door of the party
and going no further than that this is
the question that Benjamin rapor left
neuralink to investigate and he may have
already found the answer this is the
layer 7 cortical interface it's an ultra
thin film array that's only 1/5 the
thickness of a human hair and covered
with 1,24 tiny electrode sensors it's
designed to sit on top of your brain
where it can very effectively e drop on
all of the conversations that your
neurons are having without ever having
to cause any physical damage to your
brain matter sounds like a pretty good
deal the layer 7even was created by
Precision Neuroscience who you probably
never heard of but this is the company
that was founded by Benjamin Rapaport
after he left neuralink and this thin
film array is the safer less invasive
BCI technology that he had envisioned
back in 2018 one that Elon Musk would
have considered to be inferior because
it doesn't penetrate deep enough into
the neurons but in reality the opposite
it has proven to be true while Nur
Link's total electrode count in human
trials has dropped over time from 1024
down to just
154 Precision has been pushing forward
starting with one cortical interface and
then adding a second to the same patient
for a total of
248 electrodes that was last summer and
just recently in April 2024 Precision
set a new record with four interfaces in
implanted on one human brain for a total
of
4,096 electrodes all reading brain
signals at the same time the thin film
array is designed to be implanted
through a small slit that's cut into the
patient's skull then the electrodes are
slid in between the brain and its outer
protective layer called the dura the
thin flexible nature of the array allows
it to conform perfectly to the wrinkled
shape of the cerebral cortex like Saran
Wrap and then a wireless transmitter is
placed underneath the user's skin that
plugs into the electrodes and broadcasts
the neural signal wirelessly through
Bluetooth with such a small thin cut
into the skull just 1 mm across there
can be multiple arrays placed on
different regions of the brain without
compromising the patient's skull
Integrity you could have multiple neural
links but the skull is pretty quickly
going to start resembling swiss cheese
with all of those holes cut into it
Precision has already tested its layer 7
cortical interface with 14 human
patients over the past 3 years this is
made possible because the thin film
array is so easy and harmless to place
onto and remove from the brain that the
procedure can be incorporated into any
routine neural surgery so what Precision
does they find a case where a patient is
already undergoing open brain surgery
for something like a benign tumor
removal or Parkinson's disease treatment
that they simply Place their array on
the surface of the patient's exposed
brain and begin recording data in some
of these cases the patient is awake
through the entire procedure and will
participate in motion capture activities
that map physical movement of the hands
and fingers to electrical signals in
their brain this is a huge advantage to
Precision that neuralink cannot match
right now neuralink is only going ahead
with their implant in people who already
have full body paralysis so that limits
their research to imagined movement they
can't capture physical movement of their
patient at the same time and then when
Precision has got their data they simply
lift the array off of the patient's
brain and their head is sewn back up
with no Trace that the BCI was ever
there what the company has already been
able to prove is that you don't really
need to penetrate the brain in order to
collect high resolution data from the
neurons you only need to figure out how
to bypass the skull just being very
close on top of the brain matter is
still very good or at least good enough
for any practical medical reason maybe
nerling still needs to stick people with
threads to do elon's whole merge the
human brain with AI thing or whatever
that's supposed to be but if we just
want to help people with disabilities
and illness to live better lives then
it's already been proven that we do not
have to saw holes in their skull or
damage their brains to do that so in
many ways what Precision has done here
is dramatically lower the barrier to
entry for brain computer interface much
more so than neuralink ever could and
Innovations like this are exactly the
kind of development that will make brain
computer interface one of the biggest
stories of the decade to come
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