Controlling a video game with your mind seems like an empty advancement. It is the door to treatments for depression or anxiety
Although a good part of the technology industry is focusing on innovations that we are not very clear about how they can help us (there is the waste in AI and humanoid robotics), there are those who are researching something that can open an unthinkable door for thousands of people: brain-computer interfaces. That’s where they come into play brain chips. Neuralink It is the product with the best-known commercial name and the one that seemed to open the way in a more public way, something that China has followed with an important boost in these brain chips. The technology has been tested on humans for years, but there are two problems: it is a very invasive technology and, furthermore, learning to master this computer implanted in the brain It is a complex process that requires training. Yale University, however, is developing another way: an external, non-invasive brain interface that wants to fix these two problems. The problem is that it is not as pretty as it sounds. Work with the brain, not against it A few days ago, researchers at Yale University they published a study in Nature Neuroscience in which they detailed that the idea of this project is to take advantage of the natural geometry of neuronal activity and not fight against it when a user can control software with their mind. The one of the fMRI-based BCIs (brain-computer interfaces) (functional magnetic resonance) is a field that has been explored for some time, but has an efficiency problem. It requires many long training sessions for a user to end up achieving modest results at best. Additionally, up to a third of participants never mastered the software. The twist that the Yale researchers have taken is to use the natural geometry of the brain. That is, taking advantage of the “consolidated pathways” of our brain activity so that technology works in favor of these existing pathways instead of forcing the brain to create completely new pathways. Result? Less friction and faster, more efficient learning. For landing it, we are not talking about a brain chipbut to introduce a person into an MRI machine not to do a standard scan, but so that that person can take advantage of the capabilities of real-time MRIs to move something in software. In this case, an avatar in a video game. That is to say, it does scan, all the time, in fact, while another program reads the data on the fly. To do this, they used a series of their own algorithms to discover the individual geometry of each person and, from that unique “map”, they created a closed system that read the user’s brain scan every two seconds and translated the data into video game movements. They tested three configurations: One based on the most natural pathways used by the brain. Others based on also natural routes, but less dominant. And a third based on pathways that the brain does not produce naturally, but that it builds. According to researchers, it’s like paving a road from scratch. The result was very positive: Participants learned to control the avatar using thought alone in less than an hour when the BCI interface aligned with that more natural brain map. Sometimes even in less time. When the system moved away from natural geometry, participants could control the avatar, but the time spent was much greater. The conclusion is that using this adjustment between the machine and the natural pathways of each individual’s brain, a physical reorganization of the brain has been observed to align with what the interface is demanding. The researchers observed that this reorganization spread even to brain regions that were not being used at the time, demonstrating that there is a kind of domino effect in the brain as it adapts to the changes. It’s very promising, but there is a problem: the necessary equipment. We are talking about that, to achieve these results, users had their heads inside an MRI machine, huge and very expensive equipment which is far from being as practical as brain chips claim to be. That is to say, it is not so much a “street” technology that allows people who need it to find an improvement in their abilities, but that does not mean that it remains a mere discovery. Something like this has interesting implications that can open the door to various applications in fields such as mental health (noting that it can be effective in developing treatments for depression or anxiety), motor and communication disorders or even cognitive improvement. Something more “clinical”, not common at home, although Erica Busch, first author of the study, opens the door to the construction of new generation video game systems controlled directly with the mind. But well, in the end, more than a commercial product, Busch herself points out that This discovery is more useful in the field of research. “We spend a lot of resources trying to become better versions of ourselves through education, practice or therapy. Understanding the structure of our own mind and brain can help us do this much more effectively.” Images | Yale In Xataka | Synchron is Neuralink’s great rival in the race for brain chips. Now you have an ace up your sleeve: ChatGPT
