Source: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A6954934502381031424
#BrainComputerInterface #Startup Implants First Device in US Patient: Synchron’s procedure will help an #ALS #patient #text by #thinking, in a major step forward in a nascent industry, with the Brooklyn-based company recently overtaking Elon Musk’s Neuralink. https://lnkd.in/gfuJ26kw
Synchon’s technology can be implanted in a #less #invasive procedure than other #brain-#computer #interface #devices. Synchron, the startup behind the technology, has already implanted its devices in four patients in Australia, who haven’t experienced side effects and have been able to carry out such tasks as sending #WhatsApp #messages and making #online #purchases. The recent procedure was the first the company has done in the US, putting it ahead of competitors including Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corp.
Founded in 2016, Synchron has caught the attention of the brain-computer interface #BCI field because its device, known as the #stentrode, can be inserted into the #brain without cutting through a person’s skull or damaging their tissue. A doctor makes an incision in the patient’s neck and feeds the stentrode via a catheter through the jugular vein into a blood vessel nestled within the motor cortex. As the catheter is removed, the stentrode—a cylindrical, hollow wire mesh—opens up and begins to fuse with the outer edges of the vessel. According to the specialists, the process is very similar to implanting a coronary stent and takes just a few minutes.
A second procedure then connects the stentrode via a wire to a #computing #device implanted in the patient’s chest. To do this, the surgeon must create a tunnel for the wire and a pocket for the device underneath the patient’s skin, much like what’s done to accommodate a #pacemaker. The #stentrode reads the #signals when #neurons fire in the #brain, and the computing device #amplifies those signals and sends them out to a #computer or #smartphone via #Bluetooth. It’s far less invasive than the current state-of-the-art Utah array, which requires doctors to cut the scalp and drill into the skull to place rigid needles in the brain. Those then attach to a lime-size device placed on top of a person’s head.
Tucked into the #motor #cortex, the stentrode uses 16 electrodes to monitor brain activity and record the firing of neurons when a person thinks. The signal strength improves over time, as the device fuses deeper into the blood vessel and gets closer to the neurons. #Software is used to analyze the patterns of #brain #data and match them with the #goal a person is trying to accomplish. The limited computing power of the stentrode means the device can’t translate whole sentences. Rather, a patient with the implant picks letters one-by-one on a screen, and the technology converts those “yes or no” #thoughts into #commands.
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