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Biotech Medicine

Upgrade Your Memory With A Surgically Implanted Brain Chip (bnnbloomberg.ca) 110

Posted by EditorDavid from the just-like-Johnny-Mnemonic dept.
Bloomberg reports on a five-year, $77 million project by America's Department of Defense to create an implantable brain device that restores memory-generation capacity for people with traumatic brain injuries.

A device has now been developed by Michael Kahana, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and the medical technology company Medtronic Plc, and successfully tested with funding from America's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). Connected to the left temporal cortex, it monitors the brain's electrical activity and forecasts whether a lasting memory will be created. "Just like meteorologists predict the weather by putting sensors in the environment that measure humidity and wind speed and temperature, we put sensors in the brain and measure electrical signals," Kahana says. If brain activity is suboptimal, the device provides a small zap, undetectable to the patient, to strengthen the signal and increase the chance of memory formation.

In two separate studies, researchers found the prototype consistently boosted memory 15 per cent to 18 per cent. The second group performing human testing, a team from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., aided by colleagues at the University of Southern California, has a more finely tuned method. In a study published last year, their patients showed memory retention improvement of as much as 37 per cent. "We're looking at questions like, 'Where are my keys? Where did I park the car? Have I taken my pills?'â" says Robert Hampson, lead author of the 2018 study...

Both groups have tested their devices only on epileptic patients with electrodes already implanted in their brains to monitor seizures; each implant requires clunky external hardware that won't fit in somebody's skull. The next steps will be building smaller implants and getting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to bring the devices to market... Justin Sanchez, who just stepped down as director of Darpa's biological technologies office, says veterans will be the first to use the prosthetics. "We have hundreds of thousands of military personnel with traumatic brain injuries," he says. The next group will likely be stroke and Alzheimer's patients.
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Upgrade Your Memory With A Surgically Implanted Brain Chip More

Upgrade Your Memory With A Surgically Implanted Brain Chip

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  • HIT ME! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Sunday June 16, 2019 @09:08PM (#58773730)

    HIT ME!

    • This is how it starts (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Sunday June 16, 2019 @11:40PM (#58774040) Homepage Journal

      If anyone is worried about the rise of souless inhuman machines brought about by AI, this is how it starts.

      The cerebral cortex is a repeating pattern of about 100 to 150 cells (per pattern), known as a cortical column. If you could peel the cerebral cortex from the brain, it would be a sheet about the size of a gentleman's handkerchief, and about twice the thickness of a credit card. If you could stain the napkin appropriately, the surface would be an array (in roughly hexagonal formation) of columns, each about the thickness of a human hair.

      Strokes and other incidents damage portions of the brain. This is why stroke victims can survive the effect, but have specific damage that can interrupt their ability to communicate - sometimes in very specific ways.

      If we had an artificial replacement for a cortical column - something that does the job of 150 nerve cells - then this damage could be repaired. A small computer chip could "learn" the responses that the original column had. Memories are distributed throughout the brain, so it would be a simple case of "if this set fires, then activate that set of neurons". There's also lots of information in the environment - your house, friends who interact with you, family photos and movies would all contribute familiar data that the replacement column could use to learn its job.

      Eventually cortical column replacement will become commonplace, and the question then becomes: at what point is the person no longer human?

      If one gradually replaces cortical columns giving each an appropriate time for learning and adaptation, eventually the entire brain could become artificial.

      And this (the OP) is how it begins. Certainly rich people who can afford to have the treatments will fix their disabilities from stroke or brain injury. Eventually the technology will become cheaper and easier, and who doesn't want to help mom or dad recover from their debilitating state?

      This will raise some interesting legal and philosophical questions.

      Let's worry about them now, so that we are not caught unawares when it eventually happens.

      • As well as the financial divide between people who can afford this and those who can't. Like adderall or Ritalin, you can fix a broken person or enhance a well person. Surgeries won't be cheap and like "plastic" surgery voluntary operations less so.

        This too must be on the table for discussion. In USA if you don't have insurance you pay "list price" which is artificially inflated to raise the insurance agreement price. I've gotten a bill for over $600 and $580 was "adjusted" away. No one paid that. I paid $6

      • Eventually cortical column replacement will become commonplace, and the question then becomes: at what point is the person no longer human?

        I would say it's when they start shooting lasers out of their eyes.

      • at what point is the person no longer human?

        At the point they no longer think and feel.

      • Well the headline implies memory but it's really just brain stim so it's the latter.

      • If "You" exist as more than a trick your brain plays on you to make sure you feed the right person when you are hungry, then "You" are undoubtedly software. What would it matter what hardware you run on? Sure, in a virtual brain, one could control the hormones and chemicals which trigger much of what you think and feel, but those options are available today in the form of drugs. We don't consider a drug addict subhuman, why would we consider a virtual human subhuman?

      • In the not too distant future, expect enormous controversy and unrest eclipsing all previous controversies (pro-life/pro-choice, pro-slavery/abolitionist, etc.) on the question of "What defines a human or human equivalent being that should be accorded all rights under the law?"

        The only possible answer that can eventually emerge is that a human being defines itself by its behavior. (Yes, that does mean serial killers and child predators would probably no longer qualify.)

        That said, I'll take a whole han

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Falos ( 2905315 )

        This will raise some interesting legal and philosophical questions. Let's worry about them now, so that we are not caught unawares when it eventually happens.

        I think people worry. Individuals will ask and discuss.

        This is a gap from what would really matter: How much society has internalized (and culture sometimes requires one or more generations to drift around) the responses, what is appropriate.

        We bridge that somewhat having at least some people (those running legislation, those running corporation) be at least aware of these considerations. Kinda like what we're doing with genetics and cloning and stem cell and editing and such. I'm not saying it's working or

  • crazy bob's computer shop will sell them!

  • AC but I hope people read this (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    15 to 18 percent is kind of crap. Read a recent story on Carbon Dioxide. You can improve your cognitive abilities by keeping your Carbon Dioxide levels low. (like: 600ppm instead of 1200ppm.) This has around a 60% effect in the study. Soooo... 15 to 18 percent improvement and possibly killing you with brain surgery? I'd ask: Why?

  • Direct-To-Your-Brain Ad Supported (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 16, 2019 @09:16PM (#58773756)

    For those who cannot afford this chip, there will be an ad-supported version at reduced cost, with ads transmitted directly into your brain.

    In other news, "Ads Implant False Memories [wired.com]".

    captcha : monolith

    • For those who cannot afford this chip, there will be an ad-supported version at reduced cost, with ads transmitted directly into your brain.

      In other news, "Ads Implant False Memories [wired.com]".

      captcha : monolith

      Breaking: "Brain Chip Vendors Have Been Selling Your Personal Memories to 3rd-Parties"

  • War (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Sunday June 16, 2019 @09:20PM (#58773780) Homepage Journal

    "We have hundreds of thousands of military personnel with traumatic brain injuries,"
     
    Jesus Christ.

  • soldiers for test subjects in Universal Soldier...

  • I think all chip implants should have a serial number starting with 666.

  • I told you this was coming... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mark-t ( 151149 ) <markt AT nerdflat DOT com> on Sunday June 16, 2019 @10:55PM (#58773954) Journal

    I hate to say I told you so, but....

    So the question becomes, will people with these kinds of chips have to also have easily recognizable tatoos on their faces so that people around them will know that everything that people do and say around them may be essentially getting recorded for all time?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by mentil ( 1748130 )

      Yes. However, the tattoos will be a written EULA, and looking in the person's direction will make you bound to the contract, which also has an arbitration clause. If you want to opt out you have to send a notarized certified letter to an address specified in point 6 font on the webs inbetween their toes.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You're missing the oppsite, you can suspress the signal to prevent the long term memory from forming. Expect the device to have poor security.

      Miniturize it a bit more and place more sensors and now you can inject new memories by forcing the signals to match pre-recorded signals. Great way to teach someone and a great way to tourture someone too. Here's a nice tourtured to death recording of someone else. We'll play it for you on loop for a week and ensure it's all 100% engraved into your neurons. Enjoy

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mark-t ( 151149 )

        you can supress the signal to prevent the long term memory from forming

        Suppress what signal? I saw nothing in the description of it that suggested that it could somehow reduce the strength of normal brain activity... if a memory was going to form on its own, it still would... anything the chip tried to do would only make it more likely to form, but it shouldn't reduce it.

        • you can supress the signal to prevent the long term memory from forming

          Suppress what signal? I saw nothing in the description of it that suggested that it could somehow reduce the strength of normal brain activity... if a memory was going to form on its own, it still would... anything the chip tried to do would only make it more likely to form, but it shouldn't reduce it.

          So you don't remember reading about the ability to erase memories? https://science.slashdot.org/s... [slashdot.org]

    • I hate to say I told you so, but....

      So the question becomes, will people with these kinds of chips have to also have easily recognizable tatoos on their faces so that people around them will know that everything that people do and say around them may be essentially getting recorded for all time?

      Yes, Mike Tyson is one of the fortunate few to have already gotten an implant.

    • If you read the summary, you'll see that the chip isn't recording anything, it encourages the brain itself to remember more effectively. As for the issue of actual recording, that shipped sailed a while ago. Tiny cameras which can be easily concealed in clothing already exist and aren't even that expensive. This shouldn't be that surprising; any modern laptop has a camera which is efficient and cheap enough to be a tiny part of the cost of the laptop and small enough that it doesn't matter in terms of weig

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mark-t ( 151149 )

        That's my point, the brain is recording something.

        I've brought this subject up before on the matter of right to be forgotten laws, suggesting that there should be no fundamental distinction between information stored on a computer and information that happens to be stored in a human brain. Both can be historical records of a type, but somehow the argument appears to be that the fallibility of human memory is somehow more comfortable. But if *human* memory can be augmented so that forgetting doesn't hap

  • Resistance is futile (Score:5, Funny)

    by cdsparrow ( 658739 ) on Sunday June 16, 2019 @11:11PM (#58773986)

    Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to the collective.

  • Forecast, Schmorecast (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Monday June 17, 2019 @07:46AM (#58775018)

    "Connected to the left temporal cortex, it monitors the brain's electrical activity and forecasts whether a lasting memory will be created. "

    I don't want to forecast, I want to _determine_ what to keep in memory (stuff I need for job and love) and stuff I don't. (gossip, Trump, movies and series, so that I can watch them again and again 'for the first time')

  • Is there a point , where using technology of any kind becomes unethical?
    Many people seem to thing the answer is no.
    Basically if it can be done, it must be moral.
    I disagree, but seem always to be in the minority about how and when to put on the breaks.
    Human beings do not belong integrated with machines on a biological level.

  • Finally, a method to hack into someone's thought. This would change the way police interrogates suspected criminals, or the way a person gets a job interview. Spouse cheaters will be exposed, and we will find out which politicians really have bad intentions the moment somebody hacks into their brain chip. Yay!

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