Posted on 04/09/2020 10:21:52 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Researchers have demonstrated the ability to implant an ultrathin, flexible neural interface with thousands of electrodes into the brain with a projected lifetime of more than six years. Protected from the ravaging environment of internal biological processes by less than a micrometer of material, the achievement is an important step toward creating high-resolution neural interfaces that can persist within a human body for an entire lifetime.
The human body is an unforgiving place to live if you're an uninvited guest—especially if you're made of polymers or metal. Besides attacks from the surrounding tissues and immune system, foreign objects must be able to stand up to a corrosive, salty environment.
This 1,008-electrode neural interface can survive implantation within a brain for six years, blowing previous technologies completely out of the water. One of their goals is to create a new type of visual prosthetic that interacts directly with the brain that can restore at least some sight capacity for people with damaged optic nerves. But such a device could also be used to control other types of prosthetics or in a wide range of neuroscience research projects.
In the new paper, Viventi, Rogers, Pesaran and their colleagues demonstrate that a thermally grown layer of silicon dioxide less than a micrometer thick can ward off the hostile environment within the brain, degrading at a rate of only 0.46 nanometers per day. And because this form of glass is biocompatible, any trace amount that dissolves into the body should not create any problems of its own.
They also show that, even though the glass encapsulation is not conductive, the device's electrodes can detect neural activity through capacitive sensing.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Cool!
See Elon Musk’s https://www.neuralink.com/
I suspect that for most people, the idea of any Brain Implant remains a scary and horrific idea, the ultimate intrusion.
This sort of research could be helpful to those with brain injuries. Military Veterans, stroke patients, amputees and in some cases, even those with mental illnesses.
So each result won’t necessarily look like an escapee from
The Island of Doctor Moreau.
If you think all the smartphone zombies are bad, just wait until the smartphone is inside their brain...
“I suspect that for most people, the idea of any Brain Implant remains a scary and horrific idea, the ultimate intrusion.”
A generation or two ago, the idea that everyone should carry around an always-on tracking and listening device would have been thought of as similarly horrific and intrusive.
The Terminal Man
Exosquad comes to mind.
Gotta run an E-Frame somehow.
Can the “tasp” be far behind?
Ref: Ringworld by Larry Niven.
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