Brain interface-computers Startup Paradromics announced today that the surgeons successfully put the company’s brain implant into the patient and removed it safely after about 10 minutes.
It is a step towards longer tests of the device called Connexus. It is also the latest commercial development in the developing field of companies – including Elona Musk’s neuralk, whose goal is to connect people’s brains directly with computers.
In connection with the Connexus Paradromics based on Austin, he wants to restore speech and communication in people with spinal cord damage, stroke or atrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS. The device has been designed to translate neural signals into synthesized speech, text and cursor control. Paradromics, founded in 2015, has been testing its implant in sheep for several years. For the first time, he used a human patient’s device.
The procedure took place on May 14 at the University of Michigan and was carried out at a person who undergoes brain surgery to treat epilepsy. The patient agreed to temporarily insert the Connexus device into the temporal lobe, which processes auditory information and codes for memory. To implant the device, the surgeons used an Epipen -like instrument developed by Paradromics. Researchers were able to check if the device was able to record electrical signals from the patient’s brain.
“This is a very unique opportunity when someone undergoes a serious neurosurgical procedure,” says Matt Angle, CEO of Paradromics. “They will open their skull, and there will be a piece of brain that will be unmoved. Under these conditions, the marginal risk of testing the brain implant is actually very low.
The paradromics implant is smaller than the size of a ten -century and has 420 small needles that are pushed into the brain tissue. These needles are electrodes that record from individual neurons. Similarly, the Neuralink implant is also found in the brain tissue. (For comparison, it has over 1000 electrodes spread over 64 thin, flexible threads.) Other BCI companies take less invasive approaches. For example, precise neuronauka testing a implant based on the brain surface, and the synchron has developed a device that goes to the blood vessel and rests on the brain. Both of these devices collect signals from groups of neurons, not individual.
“With the proximity of individual neurons, you can get the highest quality signal,” says Angle. Obtaining a high resolution signal from the brain is important for accurate decoding of the intended speech.
BCIS does not directly “read private thoughts of people. Instead, they work, interpreting neural signals related to the intention of movement. Bci, how paradromics develops, for example, the face movements related to conversation would spread. A person with a paralysis who cannot move his mouth can still try to make the movement, which produces unique neural signals in the brain. These signals are then decoded.
In 2023, groups from Stanford University and UC San Francisco reported significant progress in decoding speech using BCIS. In two women, brain implants were able to decode the intended speech at a rate of 62 and 78 words per minute. For comparison, people say about 130 words per minute.