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Neuralink, the billionaire’s company Elon Musk that develops technologies for interaction between brain and machines, published a video in which a monkey apparently plays video games with his mind.
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The scenes show the 9-year-old monkey Pager, who received a chip implant in the brain about six weeks before recording, controlling game ‘Pong’ even with control off.
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The dissemination of material of this type was not done as it is common in scientific circles. The video is usually accompanied by a peer-reviewed article in scientific journals, which did not happen.
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Pager was taught to play video games with a controller, while being rewarded for a banana smoothie.
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While doing this, a device from Neuralink recorded information about the monkey’s neuron activity via the chip implanted in its skull, according to the company.
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The device contains more than 2000 electrodes implanted in the regions of the Pager motor cortex, responsible for coordinating the movements of the hands and arms.
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The data was placed in a “decoder algorithm” to predict the hand movements intended by Pager in real time.
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After calibrating the decoder, Neuralink said the monkey was able to use it to move the cursor, instead of using the video game controller.
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The scenes show Pager playing with the controller disconnected.
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Another Neuralink demonstration
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Last August, the Neuralink described his brain implant like a chip about 8 millimeters in diameter (smaller than the tip of a finger).
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The device consists of a small probe that contains more than 3,000 electrodes connected to flexible wires and thinner than a human hair and is capable of monitoring the activity of a thousand brain neurons.
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In one demonstration, a computer displayed the brain activity of a pig that received the implant, which was then removed and did not cause any motor modification in the animal.
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On Twitter, Elon Musk stated that the company’s work will allow people with paralysis to use a cell phone with their mind “faster than someone with their fingers.
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He also mentioned the possibility of helping paraplegics to walk again by sending signals to neurons responsible for motor responses.
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Later versions will be able to shunt signals from Neuralinks in brain to Neuralinks in body motor/sensory neuron clusters, thus enabling, for example, paraplegics to walk again
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