Neural Links is an idea that has gained some fame in the current times. Neuralink, a company run by CEO Elon Musk, has been constanty working towards making this technology a success. The primary aim of this device is to form a high-bandwidth connection between the cranial neurons and computers. Here is the reasoning behind it :
Our brains are composed of over 85 million neurons. These neurons interact by sending and transmitting impulses, much like electricity that flows in wires. How information flows through the nervous system. The neurons in are body are at a negative potential with respect to its surroundings (called Resting Membrane Potential or RMP) due to difference in concentrations of Sodium and Potassium ions inside and outside the neuron cell membrane. Information flows through neurons by changes in this membrane potential. In particular, excitation of a neuron changes the permeability of its membrane to Sodium and Potassium ions, which move across the membrane due to existing potential, thereby changing it. If this change in membrane potential crosses a certain threshold, the voltage-gated sodium channels open, causing sodium ions to enter the cell, leading to a sharp rise in the membrane potential. This is called the action potential. This change is propagated forwards.
Turns out this Action Potential can also be generated artificially, using electrodes attached to axons of target neurons. In electrical stimulation, the neuron is excited by forcibly changing the membrane potential. In fact, electrical stimulation of the brain is common practice in neuro-science research and is an increasingly common and effective clinical therapy for a variety of neurological disorders.
Need for Neural Links
According to Elon Musk, direct links to computers from the brain is essential if we want to establish a symbiotic relationship with the ever-increasing tech intelligence. Bandwidth is a measurement indicating the maximum capacity of a wired or wireless communication link to transmit data over a network connection in a given amount of time. In other words, it the amount of data that can be transferred from one point to another, within a network in a given amount of time (usually one second). Typically, an electrical system is capable of transferring several GigaBits of information per second. The human eye (in particular, the Retina) is capable of taking in about 8.75 MegaBits per second. Similar bandwidth exists for the other input senses in our body, like human ear. In contrast, the typing speed of an average person is 40 words per minute, or 2/3 word per second, which makes it merely several hundred bits of data. Thus, the input and output bandwidth, particular output, is very low, in other words, we humans are very slow in communicating with the outside world as compared to the machines around us. Attaching Neural Links, or tiny electrodes to the brain neurons can help bridge the gap between these bandwidths. Information can be made to flow directly from the brain to/from the outside world, at speeds much greater than what we can achieve presently by our senses. This information transfer can be made not only between humans and computers, but also between two humans, completely changing the way we communicate with each other in our day-to-day lives.
Applications
Neural Plasticity refers to the capacity of the nervous system to modify itself, functionally and structurally, in response to experience and injury. This means that areas of the brain can re-specialize in other functions than those they are designed for, based on intense practice, intention and motivation. This comes from the Hebbian principle, which can be summarised by the phrase : “Neurons that fire together Wire together”. This technique, known as rehabilitation, is used for treating several neurological disorders, either by forcing movement/action of the affected areas of the body, by constraining the other areas or use of wearable equipment(bottom-up approach) or by directly stimulating the targetted areas of the brain(top-down approach).
Secondly, in medicine, a prosthesis or prosthetic implant is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trauma, disease, or a condition present at birth (congenital disorder). Prostheses are intended to restore the normal functions of the missing body part. Artificial limbs are attached to people having suffered from loss of limbs. These are connected to the nervous system, enabling the patient to be able to control the motion of these robotic limbs just like their natural counterparts. The same can be done for eyeballs/eye-sockets/ear/nose and certain other parts as well.
These two areas of medicine can see a significant boost in performance by the use of neural links. Also, it can assist in diagnosis processes, in that damage to certain areas of the brain/neurons in a patient having the device previously implanted can be detected easily by “activation tests” that can be designed for the machine, working of the different brain regions in different situations may become easier to study and understand.
Another area the neural link may have a great impact on is communication of information. It may enable direct transmission of information from the brain into a computer, without the need for hands and other bodily senses. Things like memorization and retention will become trivial. Also, conveying of emotions/intuition/feelings/moods and similar abstractions between humans will become possible. This opens up a whole new area of research and development.
Resistance
The biggest hurdle in the implementation of this technology is that the electrodes need to be precisely placed in the cranium to activate the required areas of the brain. This process seems too delicate to be handled by humans, which is why specially designed robots will have to be made to accomplish this.
Further, there are standards of reversibility and replaceabillty, that need to be met, before it can be made accessible to the public, to ensure the safety and comfort of the bearer. The device needs to be removable once installed, and a secure mechanism to predict and/or correct any faults occurring in the device needs to be formulated. There needs to be ways to prevent or minimize occurrences of unethical hacking and malfunction in this context.
Also, the surgical procedure involved in implantation and removal of the device needs to be made risk-free and feasible. There are issues like bleeding and General Anaesthesia-related risks associated with cranial surgeries, which needs to be sorted out, especially because surgeries of this kind may not be carried out by humans.
To conclude, the idea of procuring a high bandwidth connection between the biological and artificial intelligence seems like a very different and intriguing idea, though still far from becoming a reality. It will be exciting to see what opportunities and outcomes await us, as technologies like these are developed and applied in out day-to-day lives.