Monitoring brains wirelessly

Thanks to the efforts of a group of scientists and researchers at the Brown Institute of Brain Science in Providence, Rhode Island, the human race has moved one more step forward in creating a machine capable of reading and transmitting the signals from our brain.  The latest wireless brain sensors are, as the scientists put it, kind of like a cell phone that transmits brain waves instead of vocal information.  Although they’re still in animal trials, if they could be made to fit human beings they could help with many things, particularly in letting people suffering from paralysis interact with their surroundings.

These new devices are not only wireless, but can be implanted into the brain and are easily rechargeable.  So far the technology is still limited, however.  Batteries only last for about six hours and take a few hours to recharge.  The amount of neurons that can be tracked at one time only number around 100.  And, of course, there has been no human testing as of yet, though with more than a year of large animal testing behind them, it’s expected that this might change soon.

In addition to working with paralyzed people, there are several other things that such an innovation could be used for.  One of the other projects that researchers are aiming toward is using the device to monitor brain responses in animals that have the non-human equivalent of Parkinson’s disease. 

When you look at it this way, a smaller and safer version of this technology could be used to discover new things about any number of neurological problems in human beings.  The portable nature of it allows researchers to track neural activity over long periods of time without having to confine subjects to control conditions.  Thus, an accurate picture of the brain’s activity under mostly normal circumstances can be observed.  It is this type of information that is crucial to understanding things that may bring great breakthroughs in helping with neurological disorders.

Essentially, the advancement is akin to the jump from still photography to video.  The potential to help humanity (and also to advance the inevitable human-machine merging of the future) is huge. Or, God forbid, it could just end up evolving into the world’s most advanced form of reality TV.

If you want to check out the deep-level science of this technology, head over to the Journal of Neural Engineering website.

Brain Tech graphic courtesy of ieet.org