What’s All the Fuss About? Brain-computer interfaces

Thoughts become actions in the latest breakthrough technology

What are they?

Systems that let people control devices with the power of their mind. An instruction to move something, such as a mouse cursor, travels straight from the brain to a computer. This bypasses the body’s neuromuscular network, which sends signals from the brain to the finger controlling the mouse.

Is this something paralysed people can use?

Yes. In a recent breakthrough, Bill Kochevar became the first person paralysed from the neck down to use thoughts to make reaching and grasping movements with his hands (see image below). Surgeons placed sensors in his brain and arm to electrically stimulate his muscles. Researchers at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, then used a computer to translate his brain signals into commands. This video shows him drinking coffee and eating mashed potato: www.snipca.com/24261.

Why is this so groundbreaking?

Because it shows that people can move parts of their body using brain signals. In previous research participants have controlled robotic arms, but not their own. Dr Bolu Ajiboye from Case Western Reserve University said that this ‘neuro-prosthesis’ technology “could offer individuals with paralysis the possibility of regaining arm and hand functions to perform day-to-day activities, offering them greater independence”. It may also help you type at 100 words per minute, Facebook claims.

Hang on! What’s Facebook got to do with it?

It wants to read your mind, and recently announced that it’s working on “silent speech” software that turns your thoughts into typed text. Building 8, the company’s hardware research lab, has 60 scientists and academics working on the project. Their goal is to realise the full computing power of the brain.

Which is…?

Well, according to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, our brains “produce enough data to stream four HD movies every second”. But evolution hasn’t kept up with technology, apparently: “The problem is that the best way we have to get information out into the world – speech – can only transmit about the same amount of data as a 1980s modem”.

Should I be worried about Facebook reading my brain?

It certainly has the potential to go very wrong. Facebook makes most of its money through advertising targeted at individuals. To do this, it needs precise information about its users, and what could provide more data than access to their brain? Just imagine if every time you thought of a product, you saw an advert for it on your PC screen. That’s a dystopian vision, but you can bet that someone in Facebook’s vast marketing department has considered whether it would work.

And would it?

Probably not. In fact, many neuroscientists doubt whether any of Facebook’s plans will amount to much, with one dismissing them as “science fiction”. The problem is that the ethics and technology don’t match. Facebook acknowledges the moral problems inherent in implanting sensors into the brains of healthy people. It would prefer to use “non-invasive” brain-reading techniques, such as optical imaging. It therefore came as a surprise when, to illustrate its ambitions, Facebook showed a woman with motor neurone disease controlling an on-screen keyboard via brain implants (see image above).

So my thoughts will remain private for now?

Yes. We’re many decades away from ‘I think, therefore I type’.