Large trials will need to show that BCIs can work in non-research settings and demonstrably improve the everyday lives of users - at prices that the market can support.
Last year, Blackrock Neurotech and several other newer BCI companies also attracted major financial backing.īringing a BCI to market will, however, entail transforming a bespoke technology, road-tested in only a small number of people, into a product that can be manufactured, implanted and used at scale. Most notably, in 2016, entrepreneur Elon Musk launched Neuralink in San Francisco, California, with the goal of connecting humans and computers. But in the past seven years, commercial interest in BCIs has surged. So far, the vast majority of implants for recording long-term from individual neurons have been made by a single company: Blackrock Neurotech, a medical-device developer based in Salt Lake City, Utah. James Johnson uses his neural interface to create art by blending images. Last year alone, scientists described a study participant using a robotic arm that could send sensory feedback directly to his brain 1 a prosthetic speech device for someone left unable to speak by a stroke 2 and a person able to communicate at record speeds by imagining himself handwriting 3. And in the past five years, the range of skills these devices can restore has expanded enormously. Only around a dozen laboratories conduct such research, but that number is growing. Johnson is one of an estimated 35 people who have had a BCI implanted long-term in their brain. “I am always stunned at what we are able to do,” he says, “and it’s frigging awesome.” Johnson has since used the BCI to control a robotic arm, use Photoshop software, play ‘shoot-’em-up’ video games, and now to drive a simulated car through a virtual environment, changing speed, steering and reacting to hazards. “We hooked up to the computer, and lo and behold I was able to move the cursor just by thinking.” The first time he used his BCI, implanted in November 2018, Johnson moved a cursor around a computer screen. “I really didn’t hesitate,” says Johnson. All told, it would take years and require hundreds of intensive training sessions. The system would then use Johnson’s brain activity to operate computer applications or to move a prosthetic device. These electrodes would record neurons in his brain as they fire, and the researchers would use algorithms to decode his thoughts and intentions. This would first entail neurosurgery to implant two grids of electrodes into his cortex.
“I thought that when this happened to me there was nothing - nothing that I could do or give.”īut then Johnson’s rehabilitation team introduced him to researchers from the nearby California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, who invited him to join a clinical trial of a brain–computer interface (BCI). For decades, he had been a carer for people with paralysis. He understood his new reality better than most. In March 2017, Johnson broke his neck in a go-carting accident, leaving him almost completely paralysed below the shoulders. If he does, he will do it using only his thoughts.
James Johnson hopes to drive a car again one day.