Neuroscroll is your answer to Neuralink.

In April 2021, Elon Musk showed a video of a monkey playing Pong without touching the controls. He can do this thanks to Neuralink, a project to connect the human brain to computers. In January of this year, Musk himself revealed to the world that he had achieved one of his most ambitious goals: the first human Neuralink implant. With FDA approval and this first successful test, the brain-computer project is set to grow in the coming years.

And one person who doesn’t want to miss out on this technological race is China. In fact, they just announced that they already have their first BCI implant called Neuroscroll, which they’ve been working on for a few years.

Play chess with your mindYes, let’s see, to play chess you have to use your mind, but in March of this year we witnessed a remarkable achievement in technology and brain-computer interface techniques. Two months after the first brain-computer interface implant, we were able to see Noland Arbaugh controlling a computer cursor using only his thoughts.

Abreu lost muscle function from his shoulders down after a diving accident about eight years ago and has been unable to move his limbs since. With Neuralink, we were able to see him play digital chess using brain waves that allowed him to control a Mac cursor. This was possible after long training, but according to him, it changed his life.

neural scrollingIt’s a very ambitious project, but from China they already have an answer called Neuroscroll. It’s apparently a 1024-channel neural probe that can record neural activity. They’ve tested it on macaque monkeys, Confirming That the in-depth recording is total.

The length of this probe can be adjusted from 10mm to 90mm, and it can be adjusted to fit the size of brains, from rodents to primates. It is the work of a team from Peking University and the Shenzhen Institute of Brain Science in Hong Kong, and through the probe it was possible to achieve simultaneous monitoring of the activities of more than 700 individual neurons covering the entire depth of the macaque brain. In addition to monkeys, they also achieved stable neural recording from the brain of a mouse for two years.

“transformative effect”This long-term test is interesting because, as Duan Xiaojie of Peking University points out, it demonstrates not only the biocompatibility but also the long-term stability of the probe. Furthermore, these extensive tests have also demonstrated that the probes remain intact and functional after repeated bending deformations.

By implanting multiple probes, it will be possible to achieve neural recordings of tens of thousands of channels, says Cheng Heping, director of the National Center for Biomedical Imaging at Peking University. This would be something that “will have transformative impacts on research in basic neuroscience and translational neuroscience, such as brain-machine interfaces.” keeps on going Cheng.

Key to ChinaNow, this isn’t the first time news like this has come out of China. In April of this year, subscriber A system called the NeuCyber ​​​​​​Array BMI, developed by the Chinese Brain Research Institute in Beijing, was implanted in a monkey, allowing it to control an isolated robotic arm to grab strawberries using simply its thoughts.

Further progress is expected in this sector in the coming months, as China has turned BCI research into a state matter. Recently, they have taken appropriate steps to develop the brain-computer interface industry, by establishing a technical committee for standardization of brain-computer interfaces under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The plan is not only to lag behind the United States in technology that could be essential to the future of research, but also in areas such as medicine, or, no less important, improving the lives of thousands of people who are unable to control their limbs. It is something parallel to Chinese government roadmap To stand up to Western technology and development that has been boosted in the past year with the imposition of new trade sanctions.

Pictures | nature, Search Portal, Xinhua

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