Synchron’s brain chip is able to pick up signals that allow the operator to use an iPhone or iPad in its accessibility mode, which is designed for those with disabilities
“We take it for granted a little bit how important these devices have become in our lives,” Oxley says. “Things like text messaging, emailing, shopping banking, healthcare access, all of that happens on the phone.”
He adds: “There’s a large number of conditions that can stop you from being able to use your phone, a stroke, ALS [motor neurone disease], spinal cord injury.”
Oxley believes Synchron’s technology will be able to reach more patients more quickly than rivals relying on surgery.
He says: “We think we are moving faster along the clinical, regulatory timeline, because we have decades of history behind us around technology that goes into the body using the blood vessels.”
Still, there are theoretical drawbacks to using a stent against directly wiring a gadget into the brain. With the stent-chip resting in a blood vessel, there is more “noise” that makes it harder to read signals from the brain.
Synchron’s stent, for instance, can’t yet pick up a movement as detailed as, say, a mouse moving across a screen.
“It’s a trade-off,” Oxley admits. However, he believes the device will still prove revolutionary as it will allow access to phone features that are currently out of reach to millions.
The field of BCI is advancing rapidly. Last year, a paralysed man from the Netherlands, Gert-Jan Oskam, was able to walk again after implants were attached to his brain and spine. He had been paralysed in a cycling accident over 12 years ago. The British Government’s Aria lab is also exploring whether such chips could soon be ready for mass adoption.
Clearly, Neuralink’s success with Arbaugh, its first patient, is a landmark moment for the nascent technology. But what of Musk’s more outlandish claims of telepathic brainwaves or AI-symbiosis? Do those prophecies help or hinder the more pressing healthcare goals?
“I don’t think it helps, necessarily,” Oxley says. “It is not why we are coming to work and I don’t think the concept that we need to merge with computers is what is driving the need for BCI to come into reality.
“On the other hand, I do believe this technology is at the beginning of a journey – where this overcomes inherent limitations of how our bodies engage with our brain.”
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