Recently, Elon Musk and Neuralink, a neural technological company, showed the public some of their break through accomplishments in integrating computer chips with an animal brain. If successful, this technology could enable people with brain or spinal cord injuries to control electronics, such as phones or computers.

The products of Neuralink, considered a brain-machine interface (BMI), enables direct communication between the brain and external devices by using tiny electrodes implanted on the brain cortex, which record action potentials from neurons. Working as the middleman, the electrodes then convert the signal to electrical impulses that enable people to control electronic devices. 

Though the idea of connecting the brain to the machine is not new; Neuralink is making several innovations that make it stand out. First, according to the company, many neural-recording devices are made from hard-to-bend metals that are easier to implant. However, these rigid devices might not fit perfectly on the curved brain tissue, which can trigger immune responses that would limit the functionality of them. Furthermore, due to the fixed shape, these electrodes can only cover a fixed number of neurons. To address these limits, Neuralink is developing small-sized and flexible electrodes, which offer “greater biocompatibility and can change shape to fit on the brain. 

Though the implantation process for these flexible and small electrodes is more difficult, Neuralink developed a robot that can insert 6 thread, or 192, polymer probes per minute with 10 μm accuracy needle-pincher like insertion head. Neuralink used agarose brian proxy to test out the robot with an 87.1% insertion rate. First, the insertion head approaches the brian proxy with a testing thread. Then the needle at the tip of the head penetrates the brian proxy surface and inserts the thread at the correct depth and location.  

Neuralink was able to use the robot to implant electrodes in male Long-Evans rats and use a USB-C as the data transmitter. It was able to receive neural signals through the electrodes from the mouse brain cortex. The implantation only caused minimal bleeding, demonstrating the reliability of the device on future human subjects. Furthermore, Neuralink is developing an integrated signal processor called the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The device would include 256 signal amplifiers and convert analog brian signals to digital. 

Overall, Neuralink is developing not only an innovating BMI but also a complete and efficient system that installs the electrodes and processes the output. Hopefully, soon, people with paralyzed body parts can just go to nearby hospitals to get Neuralink’s electrodes implanted. More profoundly, this technology can also benefit healthy people, which will forever change the way humans interface with the world.