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Is the brain chip announced by Elon Musk marketing or innovation?
Hey amazing This Sunday (4) he spoke with the experts To see if this chip will enable brain-machine integration or is just another marketing move by Musk.
- The chip itself, which houses the processor, is the size of a 1 Brazilian real coin and is installed in the inner wall of the skull by a neurosurgeon.
- What actually enters the brain are 64 threads, thinner than a strand of hair, very flexible, each containing 16 electrodes. The leads are inserted into the brain by a Neuralink robot surgeon.
- These threads pick up signals from the brain An amount ten times greater Of the equipment used so far and send everything to the slide.
“It (the chip) will read the information that passes through the brain and try to decode this information and turn this information into some application,” explains Garcia Rosa, a researcher at the University of the South Pacific.
However, it is not yet known exactly what application this brain chip has in Neuralink's work. This is because the company only reveals what its owner Elon Musk shares on X (formerly Twitter), a social network he also owns.
Thus, it is possible to transform the idea in the brain into a tangible action, such as moving a mechanical arm or an external skeleton, playing video games, or communicating in some way.
Even with all Neuralink's secrets, experts conclude so The chip implanted in humans must be linked to the area of the brain that controls movementsGiven the nature of the volunteers the company is looking for: people who have become quadriplegic due to a spinal injury or who suffer from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative disease.
Chip divides researchers' opinions
Experts he consulted amazing They were surprised by implanting a chip in the human body Opinions were divided about the benefits of the chip and whether the device would succeed in working inside the human brain.
Dr. Giselle is hopeful about this news, but warns that it's still too early to know if the chip will work in humans.
He added: “The surgery was performed this week, so there is a complete analysis that must be done after the operation, of possible complications that may occur, whether they are related to the operation or not (…) I am very optimistic about technological innovation in this sense.” “Especially to restore the independence of patients with neurological impairment, post-traumatic or post-degenerative diseases,” says Giselle.
Brazilian researcher Miguel Nicolelis A pioneer in the study of the interaction between the brain and machineshe He looks suspiciously Elon Musk ads. Nicolelis is a professor emeritus at Duke University in the United States, and he previously put a baby monkey to play video games with his brain at the beginning of this century.
“(Elon Musk's brain chip) will make people talk to the computer? Download the brain and upload it, it's all ridiculous. All this has absolutely no scientific basis and I think it will never happen (…) First, we don't do that.” “Even if we don't know what's going on, Elon Musk's tweet alone makes absolutely no sense to the scientific community,” Nicolelis says.
USP researcher Garcia Rosa was optimistic about implanting the chip, which has been approved by the US Department of Health and Human Services (FDA).
“I think they (Neuralink) are very interested in this, human health, so we hope it will be beneficial for humanity,” Garcia-Rosa says. “I think (chips in the brain) are a one-way street, right?” .
