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Ultrathin Silk-Based Brain Implants

Posted by samzenpus on from the smooth-thinking dept.

hatboyzero writes "University of Pennsylvania engineers have designed silk-based electronics that can stick to the surface of the brain, allowing for better brain-computer interfaces. The researchers say the silk-based devices are thin and flexible enough to reach previously inaccessible areas of the brain."

28 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. I'm sure it'll be brought up.. by allaunjsilverfox2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Kinda like the interface from avatar. And just about every other Science Fiction story I've read.

    --
    Restore the madness of youth's lechery
  2. Next steps, please by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ok. I've got the guy's brain in the silk bag, how do I set up the interface now?

    1. Re:Next steps, please by idji · · Score: 5, Funny

      it's really often very scary what gets tagged informative or funny on slashdot.

    2. Re:Next steps, please by Thanshin · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't know if it's the case, but I think at some point in the past, some people decided to stop using "Funny" because the combination of a "+1 Funny" with a "-1 Overrated" ended up being a -1 on karma, which could make a single unevenly popular joke empty any amount of karma.

  3. Oblig XKCD by rachit · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://xkcd.com/644/

    1. Re:Oblig XKCD by ultranova · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You know, if you connected a USB port to a brain, the chances are that you would learn to control USB devices with it eventually. You'd need some extra electronics to handle the interface - since USB is a high-frequency serial bus and brain uses low-frequency parallel bus - but this far, it seems that simply patching the signals from/to somewhere in the brains is sufficient for them to adapt.

      That's only natural, really: converting signals between different levels of abstraction, inferring conclusions, and converting the results back to low levels is what intelligence is all about.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    2. Re:Oblig XKCD by bytesex · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Maybe. I just don't see how your body is going to put the 5 Volt on it, though. Or, more importantly, how your body is going to cope with the Amperage if some device down the line short-circuits it.

      --
      Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
    3. Re:Oblig XKCD by mcgrew · · Score: 2, Informative

      The brain doesn't use a bus, its connections are parallell yet serial. Nothing man has devised is anywhere near as complex. We know vastly more about the brain than we did fifty years ago, and we still know next to nothing about it.

      If this were as advanced as some of you guys are making it out to be, blindness, deafness, and paralysis would be a thing of the past. We're still a long way from Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.

      --
      Free Martian Whores!
    4. Re:Oblig XKCD by mcgrew · · Score: 2, Informative

      In 1964 Yuri Gagarin had gone to space (and straight back down) only three years earlier; space flight was in its infancy (I posit that it still is). Space stations (the Russian MIR was the first) were far into the future, as were communications satellites (IINM the first was launched that year). There was no GPS, of course.

      There were no self-opening doors; in Disney's biography, it notes that some time after Star Trek debued, Disney went to Paramount to try to get the tech for the self-opening doors, only to find that it was just stage hands pulling the doors open; grocery store doors had handles and didn't open by themselves until the late sixties or early seventies.

      There was a microwave oven in 1947, but it was almost two meters tall; microwave ovens in the home didn't happen until the seventies. TV sets still used tubes, as did most electronics; the IC came much later (a small IC cost $1000 per circuit in 1960 dollars). Video recorders existed, but only for commercial use, not in the home, and nobody dreamed that some day you would be able to "time shift".

      The two way radio I had in the USAF in the early seventies was the size of three bricks and weighed about as much, and could hardly be characterized as a "cell phone", You couldn't call anyone not on your frequency, let alone call anyone in the world who had a telephone.

      Minicomputers were multi-user computers; the PDP-7 pictured in the wiki article was the size of a couple of refrigerators. "SRI researcher Douglas Englebart in 1968 gave a preview of what would become the staples of daily working life in the 21st century - e-mail, hypertext, word processing, video conferencing, and the mouse. The demonstration required technical support staff and a mainframe time-sharing computer that were far too costly for individual business use at the time."

      That list just scratched the surface of what we take for granted that didn't exist, or existed only in the lab or commercial use at the time. There weren't even digital watches or digital clocks. Autos didn't have fuel injectors, ABS, air bags, or even seat belts. It was an analog world; the only interaction most people had with computers were utility bills that came on Hollerith cards that said "do not fold, bend, staple, or mutilate". That meant no digital music, no digital video, no internet, no word processors; hell, carbon paper was more prevalent than photocopiers.

      When I broke both my arms at age seven, they knocked me out with ether -- automotive starting fluid, and used plaster casts. When I had a hemmoroid operation in 2002 there were all sorts of sophisticated monitoring devices. The doctor said "ok, you're going to sleep now" and the next thing I knew I was awake in the recovery room and couldn't even tell I'd been drugged (although they warned me that if I drove in the next 24 hours I'd get a DUI). That's in stark contrast to ether, which was horribly nightmarish going under and sickening after waking back up. I wrote about a friend's experience with modern medical tech in a journal last year.

      I have an implant in my left eye that was FDA approved in 2003; after being extremely nearsighted all my life, and farsighted as well in middle age, I now have better than 20/20 vision. That's better tech than Dr. McCoy, who had no cure for Kirk's age-related farsightedness except antique reading glasses. The device cures nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and cataracts; it's a lens that replaces your eye's focusing lens, and sits on struts so you can focus (most people can't after middle age, the lens gets hard).

      There was nothing wireless except transistor radios. The list goes on and on; it was primitive as all get out, but didn't seem so to us at the time.

      --
      Free Martian Whores!
  4. What can we access from the brain surface? by !eopard · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The brain is a three dimensional matrix, however TFA only mentions wrapping around what appears to be the outer surface of the brain. How much of the brains' functions are available purely via the outer surface?

    --
    Boolean logic: True, False, and File not found.
    1. Re:What can we access from the brain surface? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Quite a bit is localized to the cortex, such as motor control. It's also used for higher thought, but that's too random to really do much with. Humans have the most advanced cortex of any animal, although that also means it's thicker (1.5 - 4.5 mm), which may present the problem you propose.

    2. Re:What can we access from the brain surface? by Hurricane78 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Luckily it doesn’t matter much. It’s not about what we can access. (There is a much better interface to that, called speech! ;)
      It’s about plain interfacing. With feedback. And in that matter, the brain can without any trouble reconfigure itself (=training/learning) to do whatever you want.
      It’s what you do all day long anyway.

      Remember those experiments where they stuck a couple of wires in a monkey’s head, and he “magically” learned to use them to control a robotic arm... in addition to his other limbs!
      That’s what I mean.

      If you know how a (really any) dynamic neural net works, it’s obvious. (But it gets harder with old age. Though I think there are drugs that can partially undo it. But you don’t want to mess with those, since it’s the same thing as forgetting old habits... and you may find yourself forgetting someone or how to do something important.)

      I have no doubt, that you can train yourself to send any patterns of signals over those wires. And sense anything that’s coming in As long as they are below your brain’s maximum resolution (in time and space) and in the proper voltage/current range.

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
    3. Re:What can we access from the brain surface? by pieisgood · · Score: 3, Informative

      The brains cortex is where all the processing is done. When we go deeper into the brain what you get are long axons that interconnect regions of the brain. In the middle of the brain is the corpus collosum which acts an information transfer center from the left to the right brain and vice versa. Now the cortex its self is a 3 dimensional matrix, as you said. I doubt we will be able to (in any near future scenario) build small enough electrodes and exact placement techniques as to make brain implants that function perfectly along side our own brain activity. This silk interface is good for rough signaling and signal reception... which is a great first step. /tangent

      --
      Eat sleep die
  5. Bring it on by Wolvenhaven · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just what I want, pop ups in my head triggering all my senses. Although 90% of it will be porn so we shouldn't complain. Along with that, full sensory recording would be really cool.

    --
    Orwell was an optimist.
  6. Ahh... by djupedal · · Score: 2, Funny

    For the softness she wants and the protection you need....

  7. Reminds me of Beneath a Steel Sky by Cryacin · · Score: 3, Funny

    Robert Foster: I need a neuroport like I need a hole in my head.
    Doctor: Ummmm... it is a hole in your head.

    --
    Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
  8. Re:AAAIIIEEE ! by weirdcrashingnoises · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't worry, they should have a patch for that next week!

    --
    sigs... don't talk to me about sigs....
  9. Engineering Fashion Analogies ... by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Funny

    Engineers have now designed silk-based electronics that stick to the surface of the brain, similar to the way a silk dress clings to the hips.

    From TFA. Now, what is on those engineers' minds . . . ?

    Can someone tell me what the Large Hadron Collider is with a woman's fashion analogy . . . ?

    "The Large Hadron Collider is leaking liquid helium again today . . . it's like having a run in your stockings. It has been patched with nail polish."

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  10. Sci-Fi based implants by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Funny, I was thinking how much this was like the implant in John Crichton's head in Farscape.

  11. It gives a whole new meaning to... by stevediver · · Score: 4, Funny

    cobwebs on the brain.

  12. Disappointing by H0D_G · · Score: 2, Funny

    I wanted one that I could click my fingers to open

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Game

    --
    Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your home!
  13. Breaking And Entering by mindbrane · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Nature went to a lot of trouble to isolate our brains. In terms of the skull, the Pia Mater and the blood-barrier. I don't know if I'm ready to go sticking stuff in there, especially in light of evolution's work to keep stuff out, and, our still insufficient knowledge of the brain.

    --
    ideopath @ play
    1. Re:Breaking And Entering by Lotana · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't know if I'm ready to go sticking stuff in there, especially in light of evolution's work to keep stuff out, and, our still insufficient knowledge of the brain.

      No one is talking about starting to implanting things right now. These are the first steps. Of course researchers will be careful to make sure it is safe (Or at least worth the risk) before starting human trials.

      And this is a very important area of study. Imagine someone that is paralysed or missing a limb. If we can build artificial limbs and able to interface it directly without causing infections or rejections, this will substantially improve their quality of life!

      This is actually very exciting news. We should definitely pursue this as much as we can.

  14. Inaccessible areas by wombatmobile · · Score: 2, Insightful

    thin and flexible enough to reach previously inaccessible areas of the brain.

    The back of your mind?

    The tip of your tongue?

    The part that eats in moderation, stops drinking early, wins the girl and wears the condom?

  15. Freudian slip... by fredrik70 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I read that as 'Ultrathin Silk-Based Breast Implants'...

    oops.. oh well, shows what goes on in my head...

    --
    if (!signature) { throw std::runtime_error("No sig!"); }
  16. Made in... by ZirconCode · · Score: 3, Funny

    Made in China

  17. Silk is a biological substance , rejection risk? by Viol8 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Current implants all use biologically inert man made substances. With silk being a biological substance isn't there a high chance of rejection from the immune system? Not something you really want to happen inside your skull.

  18. Worms by pipingguy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wait - isn't silk made by worms? So now we have computer AND brain worms? Aaaarghhhh!