Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Brain Implants Get Brainier

Posted by samzenpus on from the thinking-better dept.

the_newsbeagle writes "Did my head just beep?" wonders a woman who just received a brain implant to treat her intractable epilepsy. We're entering a cyborg age of medicine, with implanted stimulators that send pulses of electricity into the brain or nervous system to prevent seizures or block pain. The first generation of devices sent out pulses in a constant and invariable rhythm, but device-makers are now inventing smart stimulators that monitor the body for signs of trouble and fire when necessary.

8 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Entering? Cyborgs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh shut up. Pacemakers have been around for decades.

    1. Re:Entering? Cyborgs? by Anubis+IV · · Score: 4, Informative

      While some pacemakers are programmable, they are not "smart stimulators that monitor the body for signs of trouble and fire when necessary".

      On the contrary, that's exactly what they are. From Wikipedia's pacemaker page:

      Modern pacemakers usually have multiple functions. The most basic form monitors the heart's native electrical rhythm. When the pacemaker does not detect a heartbeat within a normal beat-to-beat time period, it will stimulate the ventricle of the heart with a short low voltage pulse.

      The earliest ones simply stimulated the heart at regular intervals, but this newer variety that monitors the heart for signs of trouble (e.g. irregular heartbeat) and fires when necessary has been around for decades.

    2. Re:Entering? Cyborgs? by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Modern pacemakers are exactly that. They can detect when they need to pace and how much and can also act as internal defibrillators.

    3. Re:Entering? Cyborgs? by kammermusik · · Score: 2
      In principle they can be. My father had one which had the capability to act as a defibrilator, more or less autonomously. Apart from that function, it could be programmed to kick in below a certain heart rate.

      The sad thing is: at some examination, the doctors re-programmed it so it would only stimulate the heart at a rate of 40 bpm (or was it that it would only kick in below 40 bpm), but didn't tell my father about it. Though very fine before this secret intervention, since they had changed these settings, his condition and his heart performance deteriorated over the course of ~2 years, after which he eventually died. My mother had this case investigated, and they had to admit this secret change/experiment (the internal protocols of the device cleary showed the date of this change), arguing they had done it in order to stimulate/train his heart's capabilities to work without the pacemaker. As you can imagine, this explanation has kind of a bitter aftertaste.

      Bottom line is: though I appreciate technical advancements of smart/programmable devices in the medical sector, these bear the danger of doctors experimenting with them secretly on patients, i.e., without their consent.

    4. Re:Entering? Cyborgs? by aaron4801 · · Score: 2

      Additionally, this exact tech was predicted in the early 70's: The Terminal Man

  2. Sci fi by Iamthecheese · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Brain enhancements are a tall order. We need:
    • Better knowledge of human brain function
    • Microbots that can evade the immune system
    • Microbots that can move through brain tissue without causing harm
    • Microbots that can link together to from insulated wires, or build insulated wires that are safe in vivo.
    • Microbots that can transmit power and information through several layers of nerve and other tissue

    The thing is, we're getting there. These are no longer science fiction: the path to each of these abilities is very clear. And when these abilities converge we'll have matrix style give-me-knowledge-now and complete VR. Not to mention brain augmentation. This future is far, far closer than it seems.

    --
    If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
    1. Re:Sci fi by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In terms of brain implants, we are at the Peg-Leg level of sophistication. We can offer them a solution that will help with some problems, but it isn't a case where we can solve all the problems.

      So something that detects that a seizure will happen then does a pulse to stop it. Will help stop the seizure, but not cure all the problems, as well it may bring in some side effects, because the brain so so complicated.

      However for some reason we have been polarized to a point that we really can't judge tradeoffs any more. We want a 100% cure. We want our food to be 100% healthy and fill us up, and meet the taste we are craving, we want technology to Run Fast, Use little power, and be tiny. We want our contractors to be Cheap, Fast and Good.

      The fact that we live in this imperfect world, seems to have a lot of people paralyzed to the idea of progress where progress will sometimes means there will be a tradeoff.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  3. Probably not as close as you think... by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 2

    The thing is, we're getting there. These are no longer science fiction: the path to each of these abilities is very clear. And when these abilities converge we'll have matrix style give-me-knowledge-now and complete VR. Not to mention brain augmentation. This future is far, far closer than it seems.

    I'd love to think that you're right, but to paraphrase the old Sidney Harris cartoon, I think you need to be more explicit in your last step. Even if we could stitch up the whole brain with safe and robust wires and sensors, knowledge encoding is still largely a blank map.

    Of course, broad- and fine-scale read/write hardware interfaces to the brain will give us a big boost toward figuring out the harder stuff. But that's going to be a massive undertaking, and outside of hand-waving "superintelligent machines will take care of it for us" daydreams, it's going to take a very long time.

    I'm pretty confident in this prediction, but it does occupy a place of pride in my display of "things I'd really love to be wrong about".