Open AccessThe Reconnecting the Hand and Arm with Brain (ReHAB) Commentary on “An Integrated Brain-Machine Interface Platform With Thousands of Channels”
Author(s) -
Robert F. Kirsch,
A Bolu Ajiboye,
Jonathan P. Miller
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
jmir. journal of medical internet research/journal of medical internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.446
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1439-4456
pISSN - 1438-8871
DOI - 10.2196/16339
Subject(s) - brain–computer interface , neuroprosthetics , interface (matter) , computer science , neuroscience , brain function , human–computer interaction , biocompatibility , biomedical engineering , medicine , psychology , engineering , electroencephalography , bubble , maximum bubble pressure method , parallel computing , chemical engineering
Intracortical brain-machine interfaces are a promising technology for allowing people with chronic and severe neurological disorders that resulted in loss of function to potentially regain those functions through neuroprosthetic devices. The penetrating microelectrode arrays used in almost all previous studies of intracortical brain-machine interfaces in people had a limited recording life (potentially due to issues with long-term biocompatibility), as well as a limited number of recording electrodes with limited distribution in the brain. Significant advances are required in this array interface to deal with the issues of long-term biocompatibility and lack of distributed recordings. The Musk and Neuralink manuscript proposes a novel and potentially disruptive approach to advancing the brain-electrode interface technology, with the potential of addressing many of these hurdles. Our commentary addresses the potential advantages of the proposed approach, as well as the remaining challenges to be addressed.