15-10-2016, 10:59 AM
[attachment=73075]
INTRODUCTION
The evolution and development of mankind began
thousands and thousands of years before. And today our intelligence,
our brain is a resultant of this long developmental phase.
Technology also has been on the path of development
since when man appeared. It is man that gave technology its present
form. But today, technology is entering a phase where it will out wit
man in intelligence as well as efficiency.
Man has now to find a way in which he can keep in pace
with technology, and one of the recent developments in this regard, is
the brain chip implants.
Brain chips are made with a view to enhance the memory
of human beings, to help paralyzed patients, and are also intended to
serve military purposes. It is likely that implantable computer chips
acting as sensors, or actuators, may soon assist not only failing
memory, but even bestow fluency in a new language, or enable
"recognition" of previously unmet individuals. The progress already
made in therapeutic devices, in prosthetics and in computer science
indicates that it may well be feasible to develop direct interfaces
between the brain and computers.
This technology is only under developmental phase,
although many implants have already been made on the human brain
for experimental purposes. Let’s take a look at this developing
technology.
EVOLUTION TOWARDS IMPLANTABLE BRAIN
CHIPS
Worldwide there are at least three million people living with
artificial implants. In particular, research on the cochlear implant and retinal
vision have furthered the development of interfaces between neural tissues
and silicon substrate micro probes. There have been many researches in order
to enable the technology of implanting chips in the brain to develop. Some of
them are mentioned below.
The Study of the Brain
The study of the human brain is, obviously, the most
complicated area of research. When we enter a discussion on this topic, the
works of JOSE DELGADO need to be mentioned. Much of the work taking
place at the NIH, Stanford and elsewhere is built on research done in the
1950s, notably that of Yale physiologist Jose Delgado, who implanted
electrodes in animal brains and attached them to a "stimoceiver" under the
skull. This device transmitted radio signals through the electrodes in a
technique called electronic stimulation of the brain, or ESB, and culminated in
a now-legendary photograph, in the early 1960s, of Delgado controlling a live
bull with an electronic monitor (fig-1).
According to Delgado, "One of the possibilities with brain
transmitters is to influence people so that they conform to the political system.
Autonomic and somatic functions, individual and social behavior, emotional
and mental reactions may be invoked, maintained, modified, or inhibited, both
in animals and in man, by stimulation of specific cerebral structures. Physical
control of many brain functions is a demonstrated fact. It is even possible to
follow intentions, the development of thought and visual experiences."
Delgado, in a series of experiments terrifying in their human
potential, implanted electrodes in the skull of a bull. Waving a red cape,
Delgado provoked the animal to charge. Then, with a signal emitted from a
tiny hand-held radio transmitter, he made the beast turn aside in mid-lunge
and trot docilely away. He has [also] been able to ―play‖ monkeys and cats
like ―little electronic toys‖ that yawn, hide, fight, play, mate and go to sleep
on command. The individual is defenseless against direct manipulation of the
brain [Delgado, Physical Control].
Such experiments were done even on human beings. Studies in
human subjects with implanted electrodes have demonstrated that electrical
stimulation of the depth of the brain can induce pleasurable manifestations, as
evidenced by the spontaneous verbal reports of patients, their facial expression
and general behavior, and their desire to repeat the experience. With such
experiments, he unfolded many of the mysteries of the BRAIN, which
contributed to the developments in brain implant technology. For e.g.: he
understood how the sensation of suffering pain could be reduced by
stimulating the frontal lobes of the brain.
Delgado was born in Rondo, Spain, and interestingly enough he
is not a medical doctor or even a vet, but merely a biologist with a degree
from Madrid University. He, however, became an expert in neurobehavioral
research and by the time he had published this book (Physical Control of the
Mind ) in 1969, he had more than 200 publishing credits to his name. His
research was sponsored by Yale University, Foundations Fund for Research in
Psychiatry, United States Public Health Service1, Office of Naval Research2,
United States Air Force 657-1st Aero medical Research Laboratory3,
NeuroResearch Foundation, and the Spanish Council for Scientific Education,
among others.
Neural Networks:
Neural networks are loosely modeled on the networks of
neurons in biological systems. They can learn to perform complex tasks. They
are especially effective at recognizing patterns, classifying data, and
processing noisy signals. They possess a distributed associative memory
which gives it the ability to learn and generalize, i.e., adapt with experience.
The study of artificial neural networks has also added to the data
required to create brain chips. They crudely mimic the fundamental properties
of the brain. Researchers are working in both the biological and engineering
fields to further decipher the key mechanisms of how man learns and reacts to
everyday experiences.
The physiological evidences from the brain are followed to
create these networks. Then the model is analyzed and simulated and
compared with that of the brain. If any discrepancy is spotted between the
model and the brain, the initial hypothesis is changed and the model is
modified. This procedure is repeated until the model behaves in the same way
as the brain.
When eventually a network model which resembles the brain in
every aspect is created, it will be a major breakthrough in the evolution
towards implantable brain chips.
Brain Cells and Silicon Chips Linked Electronically:
One of the toughest problems in neural prosthetics is how to
connect chips and real neurons. Today, many researchers are working on tiny
electrode arrays that link the two. However, once a device is implanted the
body develops so-called glial cells, defenses that surround the foreign object
and prevent neurons and electrodes from making contact.
In Munich, the Max Planck team is taking a revolutionary
approach: interfacing the nerves and silicon directly. "I think we are the only
group doing this," Fromherz said.
Fromherz is at work on a six-month project to grow three or four
neurons on a 180 x 180-transistor array supplied by Infineon, after having
successfully grown a single neuron on the device. In a past experiment, the
researcher placed a brain slice from the hippocampus of a monkey on a
specially coated CMOS device in a Plexiglas container with electrolyte at 37
degrees C. In a few days dead tissue fell away and live nerve endings made
contact with the chip.
ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE FIELD
The achievements in the field of implantable chips, bio-chips,
so far are significant. Some of them are mentioned below:
Brain “Pacemakers”:
Researchers at the crossroads of medicine and electronics are
developing implantable silicon neurons that one day could carry out the
functions of a part of the brain that has been damaged by stroke, epilepsy or
Alzheimer's disease.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration have approved
implantable neurostimulators and drug pumps for the treatment of chronic
pain, spasticity and diabetes, according to a spokesman for Medtronic Inc.
(Minneapolis). A sponsor of the Capri conference, Medtronic says it is already
delivering benefits in neural engineering through its Activa therapy, which
uses an implantable neurostimulator, commonly called a brain pacemaker, to
treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
Surgeons implant a thin, insulated, coiled wire with four
electrodes at the tip, and then thread an extension of that wire under the skin
from the head, down the neck and into the upper chest. That wire is connected
to the neurostimulator, a small, sealed patient-controlled device that produces
electrical pulses to stimulate the brain.
These implants have helped patients suffering from Parkinson’s
disease to a large extent.
Retinomorphic Chips:
The famed mathematician Alan Turing predicted in 1950 that
computers would match wits with humans by the end of the century. In the
following decades, researchers in the new field of artificial intelligence
worked hard to fulfill his prophecy, mostly following a top-down strategy: If
we can just write enough code, they reasoned, we can simulate all the
functions of the brain. The results have been dismal. Rapid improvements in
computer power have yielded nothing resembling a thinking machine that can
write music or run a company, much less unlock the secrets of consciousness.
Kwabena Boahen, a lead researcher at the University of Pennsylvania's
Neuroengineering Research Laboratory, is trying a different solution. Rather
than imposing pseudo-smart software on a conventional silicon chip, he is
studying the way human neurons are interconnected. Then he hopes to build
electronic systems that re-create the results. In short, he is attempting to
reverse-engineer the brain from the bottom up.
Boahen and his fellow neuromorphic engineers are now
discovering that the brain's underlying structure is much simpler than the
behaviors, insights, and feelings it incites. That is because our brains, unlike
desktop computers, constantly change their own connections to revamp the
way they process information. "We now have microscopes that can see
individual connections between neurons. They show that the brain can retract
connections and make new ones in minutes. The brain deals with complexity
by wiring itself up on the fly, based on the activity going on around it,"
Boahen says. That helps explain how three pounds of neurons, drawing hardly
any more power than a night-light, can perform all the operations associated
with human thought.
The first product from Boahen's lab is a retinomorphic chip,
which he is now putting through a battery of simple vision tests. Containing
nearly 6,000 photoreceptors and 4,000 synthetic nerve connections, the chip is
about one-eighth the size of a human retina. Just as impressive, the chip
consumes only 0.06 watt of power, making it roughly three times as efficient
as the real thing. A general-purpose digital computer, in contrast, uses a
million times more energy per computation as does the human brain.
"Building neural prostheses requires us to match the efficiency, not just the
performance, of the brain," says Boahen. A retinal chip could be mounted
inside an eyeball in a year or two, he says, after engineers solve the remaining
challenges of building an efficient human-chip interface and a compact power
supply
At Emory University – The Mental Mouse:
Dr. Philip R. Kennedy, an [sic] clinical assistant professor of
neurology at Emory University in Georgia, reported that a paralyzed man was
able to control a cursor with a cone-shaped, glass implant. Each [neurotrophic
electrode] consists of a hollow glass cone about the size of a ball-point pen tip.
The implants…contain an electrode that picks up impulses from the nerve
endings. Before they are implanted, the cones are coated with chemicals —
taken from tissue inside the patients’ own knees — to encourage nerve
growth. The implants are then placed in the brain’s motor cortex — which
controls body movement — and over the course of the next few months the
chemicals encourage nerve cells to grow and attach to the electrodes. A
transmitter just inside the skull picks up signals from the cones and translates
these into cursor commands on the computer.
The Lab-rat and The Monkey:
Rats steered by a computer…could soon help find buried
earthquake victims or dispose of bombs, scientists said [1 May 2002]. The
remote-controlled ―roborats‖ can be made to run, climb, jump or turn left and
right through electrical probes, the width of a hair, implanted in their brains.
Movement signals are transmitted from a computer to the rat’s brain via a
radio receiver strapped to its back. One electrode stimulates the ―feelgood‖
center of the rat’s brain, while two other electrodes activate the cerebral
regions which process signals from its left and right whiskers. ―They work for
pleasure,‖ says Sanjiv Talwar, the bioengineer at the State University of New
York who led the research team.… ―The rat feels nirvana.‖ Asked to speculate
on potential military uses for robotic animals, Dr Talwar agreed they could, in
theory, be put to some unpleasant uses, such as assassination.
Scientists say they have developed a technology that enables a
monkey to move a cursor on a computer screen simply by thinking about it.…
Using high-tech brain scans, the researchers determined that small clump of
cells…were active in the formation of the desire to carry out specific body
movements. Armed with this knowledge, [researchers at the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena] implanted sensitive electrodes in the
posterior parietal cortex of a rhesus monkey trained to play a simple video
game.… A computer program, hooked up to the implanted electrodes,…then
moved a cursor on the computer screen in accordance with the monkey’s
desires — left or right, up or down, wherever ―the electrical (brain) patterns
tells us the monkey is planning to reach,‖ according to [researcher Daniella]
Meeker. [Dr. William Heetderks, director of the neural prosthesis program at
the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke,] believes that the
path to long-lasting implants in people would involve the recording of data
from many electrodes. ―To get a rich signal that allows you to move a limb in
three-dimensional space or move a cursor around on a screen will require the
ability to record from at least 30 neurons,‖ he said.
INTRODUCTION
The evolution and development of mankind began
thousands and thousands of years before. And today our intelligence,
our brain is a resultant of this long developmental phase.
Technology also has been on the path of development
since when man appeared. It is man that gave technology its present
form. But today, technology is entering a phase where it will out wit
man in intelligence as well as efficiency.
Man has now to find a way in which he can keep in pace
with technology, and one of the recent developments in this regard, is
the brain chip implants.
Brain chips are made with a view to enhance the memory
of human beings, to help paralyzed patients, and are also intended to
serve military purposes. It is likely that implantable computer chips
acting as sensors, or actuators, may soon assist not only failing
memory, but even bestow fluency in a new language, or enable
"recognition" of previously unmet individuals. The progress already
made in therapeutic devices, in prosthetics and in computer science
indicates that it may well be feasible to develop direct interfaces
between the brain and computers.
This technology is only under developmental phase,
although many implants have already been made on the human brain
for experimental purposes. Let’s take a look at this developing
technology.
EVOLUTION TOWARDS IMPLANTABLE BRAIN
CHIPS
Worldwide there are at least three million people living with
artificial implants. In particular, research on the cochlear implant and retinal
vision have furthered the development of interfaces between neural tissues
and silicon substrate micro probes. There have been many researches in order
to enable the technology of implanting chips in the brain to develop. Some of
them are mentioned below.
The Study of the Brain
The study of the human brain is, obviously, the most
complicated area of research. When we enter a discussion on this topic, the
works of JOSE DELGADO need to be mentioned. Much of the work taking
place at the NIH, Stanford and elsewhere is built on research done in the
1950s, notably that of Yale physiologist Jose Delgado, who implanted
electrodes in animal brains and attached them to a "stimoceiver" under the
skull. This device transmitted radio signals through the electrodes in a
technique called electronic stimulation of the brain, or ESB, and culminated in
a now-legendary photograph, in the early 1960s, of Delgado controlling a live
bull with an electronic monitor (fig-1).
According to Delgado, "One of the possibilities with brain
transmitters is to influence people so that they conform to the political system.
Autonomic and somatic functions, individual and social behavior, emotional
and mental reactions may be invoked, maintained, modified, or inhibited, both
in animals and in man, by stimulation of specific cerebral structures. Physical
control of many brain functions is a demonstrated fact. It is even possible to
follow intentions, the development of thought and visual experiences."
Delgado, in a series of experiments terrifying in their human
potential, implanted electrodes in the skull of a bull. Waving a red cape,
Delgado provoked the animal to charge. Then, with a signal emitted from a
tiny hand-held radio transmitter, he made the beast turn aside in mid-lunge
and trot docilely away. He has [also] been able to ―play‖ monkeys and cats
like ―little electronic toys‖ that yawn, hide, fight, play, mate and go to sleep
on command. The individual is defenseless against direct manipulation of the
brain [Delgado, Physical Control].
Such experiments were done even on human beings. Studies in
human subjects with implanted electrodes have demonstrated that electrical
stimulation of the depth of the brain can induce pleasurable manifestations, as
evidenced by the spontaneous verbal reports of patients, their facial expression
and general behavior, and their desire to repeat the experience. With such
experiments, he unfolded many of the mysteries of the BRAIN, which
contributed to the developments in brain implant technology. For e.g.: he
understood how the sensation of suffering pain could be reduced by
stimulating the frontal lobes of the brain.
Delgado was born in Rondo, Spain, and interestingly enough he
is not a medical doctor or even a vet, but merely a biologist with a degree
from Madrid University. He, however, became an expert in neurobehavioral
research and by the time he had published this book (Physical Control of the
Mind ) in 1969, he had more than 200 publishing credits to his name. His
research was sponsored by Yale University, Foundations Fund for Research in
Psychiatry, United States Public Health Service1, Office of Naval Research2,
United States Air Force 657-1st Aero medical Research Laboratory3,
NeuroResearch Foundation, and the Spanish Council for Scientific Education,
among others.
Neural Networks:
Neural networks are loosely modeled on the networks of
neurons in biological systems. They can learn to perform complex tasks. They
are especially effective at recognizing patterns, classifying data, and
processing noisy signals. They possess a distributed associative memory
which gives it the ability to learn and generalize, i.e., adapt with experience.
The study of artificial neural networks has also added to the data
required to create brain chips. They crudely mimic the fundamental properties
of the brain. Researchers are working in both the biological and engineering
fields to further decipher the key mechanisms of how man learns and reacts to
everyday experiences.
The physiological evidences from the brain are followed to
create these networks. Then the model is analyzed and simulated and
compared with that of the brain. If any discrepancy is spotted between the
model and the brain, the initial hypothesis is changed and the model is
modified. This procedure is repeated until the model behaves in the same way
as the brain.
When eventually a network model which resembles the brain in
every aspect is created, it will be a major breakthrough in the evolution
towards implantable brain chips.
Brain Cells and Silicon Chips Linked Electronically:
One of the toughest problems in neural prosthetics is how to
connect chips and real neurons. Today, many researchers are working on tiny
electrode arrays that link the two. However, once a device is implanted the
body develops so-called glial cells, defenses that surround the foreign object
and prevent neurons and electrodes from making contact.
In Munich, the Max Planck team is taking a revolutionary
approach: interfacing the nerves and silicon directly. "I think we are the only
group doing this," Fromherz said.
Fromherz is at work on a six-month project to grow three or four
neurons on a 180 x 180-transistor array supplied by Infineon, after having
successfully grown a single neuron on the device. In a past experiment, the
researcher placed a brain slice from the hippocampus of a monkey on a
specially coated CMOS device in a Plexiglas container with electrolyte at 37
degrees C. In a few days dead tissue fell away and live nerve endings made
contact with the chip.
ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE FIELD
The achievements in the field of implantable chips, bio-chips,
so far are significant. Some of them are mentioned below:
Brain “Pacemakers”:
Researchers at the crossroads of medicine and electronics are
developing implantable silicon neurons that one day could carry out the
functions of a part of the brain that has been damaged by stroke, epilepsy or
Alzheimer's disease.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration have approved
implantable neurostimulators and drug pumps for the treatment of chronic
pain, spasticity and diabetes, according to a spokesman for Medtronic Inc.
(Minneapolis). A sponsor of the Capri conference, Medtronic says it is already
delivering benefits in neural engineering through its Activa therapy, which
uses an implantable neurostimulator, commonly called a brain pacemaker, to
treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
Surgeons implant a thin, insulated, coiled wire with four
electrodes at the tip, and then thread an extension of that wire under the skin
from the head, down the neck and into the upper chest. That wire is connected
to the neurostimulator, a small, sealed patient-controlled device that produces
electrical pulses to stimulate the brain.
These implants have helped patients suffering from Parkinson’s
disease to a large extent.
Retinomorphic Chips:
The famed mathematician Alan Turing predicted in 1950 that
computers would match wits with humans by the end of the century. In the
following decades, researchers in the new field of artificial intelligence
worked hard to fulfill his prophecy, mostly following a top-down strategy: If
we can just write enough code, they reasoned, we can simulate all the
functions of the brain. The results have been dismal. Rapid improvements in
computer power have yielded nothing resembling a thinking machine that can
write music or run a company, much less unlock the secrets of consciousness.
Kwabena Boahen, a lead researcher at the University of Pennsylvania's
Neuroengineering Research Laboratory, is trying a different solution. Rather
than imposing pseudo-smart software on a conventional silicon chip, he is
studying the way human neurons are interconnected. Then he hopes to build
electronic systems that re-create the results. In short, he is attempting to
reverse-engineer the brain from the bottom up.
Boahen and his fellow neuromorphic engineers are now
discovering that the brain's underlying structure is much simpler than the
behaviors, insights, and feelings it incites. That is because our brains, unlike
desktop computers, constantly change their own connections to revamp the
way they process information. "We now have microscopes that can see
individual connections between neurons. They show that the brain can retract
connections and make new ones in minutes. The brain deals with complexity
by wiring itself up on the fly, based on the activity going on around it,"
Boahen says. That helps explain how three pounds of neurons, drawing hardly
any more power than a night-light, can perform all the operations associated
with human thought.
The first product from Boahen's lab is a retinomorphic chip,
which he is now putting through a battery of simple vision tests. Containing
nearly 6,000 photoreceptors and 4,000 synthetic nerve connections, the chip is
about one-eighth the size of a human retina. Just as impressive, the chip
consumes only 0.06 watt of power, making it roughly three times as efficient
as the real thing. A general-purpose digital computer, in contrast, uses a
million times more energy per computation as does the human brain.
"Building neural prostheses requires us to match the efficiency, not just the
performance, of the brain," says Boahen. A retinal chip could be mounted
inside an eyeball in a year or two, he says, after engineers solve the remaining
challenges of building an efficient human-chip interface and a compact power
supply
At Emory University – The Mental Mouse:
Dr. Philip R. Kennedy, an [sic] clinical assistant professor of
neurology at Emory University in Georgia, reported that a paralyzed man was
able to control a cursor with a cone-shaped, glass implant. Each [neurotrophic
electrode] consists of a hollow glass cone about the size of a ball-point pen tip.
The implants…contain an electrode that picks up impulses from the nerve
endings. Before they are implanted, the cones are coated with chemicals —
taken from tissue inside the patients’ own knees — to encourage nerve
growth. The implants are then placed in the brain’s motor cortex — which
controls body movement — and over the course of the next few months the
chemicals encourage nerve cells to grow and attach to the electrodes. A
transmitter just inside the skull picks up signals from the cones and translates
these into cursor commands on the computer.
The Lab-rat and The Monkey:
Rats steered by a computer…could soon help find buried
earthquake victims or dispose of bombs, scientists said [1 May 2002]. The
remote-controlled ―roborats‖ can be made to run, climb, jump or turn left and
right through electrical probes, the width of a hair, implanted in their brains.
Movement signals are transmitted from a computer to the rat’s brain via a
radio receiver strapped to its back. One electrode stimulates the ―feelgood‖
center of the rat’s brain, while two other electrodes activate the cerebral
regions which process signals from its left and right whiskers. ―They work for
pleasure,‖ says Sanjiv Talwar, the bioengineer at the State University of New
York who led the research team.… ―The rat feels nirvana.‖ Asked to speculate
on potential military uses for robotic animals, Dr Talwar agreed they could, in
theory, be put to some unpleasant uses, such as assassination.
Scientists say they have developed a technology that enables a
monkey to move a cursor on a computer screen simply by thinking about it.…
Using high-tech brain scans, the researchers determined that small clump of
cells…were active in the formation of the desire to carry out specific body
movements. Armed with this knowledge, [researchers at the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena] implanted sensitive electrodes in the
posterior parietal cortex of a rhesus monkey trained to play a simple video
game.… A computer program, hooked up to the implanted electrodes,…then
moved a cursor on the computer screen in accordance with the monkey’s
desires — left or right, up or down, wherever ―the electrical (brain) patterns
tells us the monkey is planning to reach,‖ according to [researcher Daniella]
Meeker. [Dr. William Heetderks, director of the neural prosthesis program at
the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke,] believes that the
path to long-lasting implants in people would involve the recording of data
from many electrodes. ―To get a rich signal that allows you to move a limb in
three-dimensional space or move a cursor around on a screen will require the
ability to record from at least 30 neurons,‖ he said.