Wireless brain-body electronic component treatment technology: cure sputum, not just standing walking

Remember the Christopher Reeve, the actor of Superman in the last century? In the screen, the "Superman" with a height of 1.94 meters and a burly body has a healthy body, a spirit of help, always thorns and thorns, saving people between life and death. However, in reality, Superman's actor, Rif, accidentally broke the cervical vertebra during riding, causing severe damage to the spinal cord and spending the rest of his life with the wheelchair.

However, "Superman" always has a steel-like will. Even in the face of such great changes, Reeve has never given up hope. He is always optimistic that with the development of science and technology, "there is a cure."

It is a pity that Reeve did not wait until the method of completely curing the cockroaches died, but in the next five to ten years, countless patients who rely on wheelchairs like Reeve may realize that the "Superman" failed to complete. The desire - to cure.

To cure sputum, we must first understand the cause of convulsions. At present, many sputum is caused by external force damage to the spinal cord, and the spinal cord is damaged, thus interrupting the passage of the brain to the limbs.

For everyone's analogy, the spinal nerve is a bridge, our brain is on one side of the bridge, the trunk is the other side of the bridge, the broken spinal cord is the bridge broken, and the bridge is also very fine, difficult to repair, resulting in no contact on both sides. There are symptoms of paralysis.

What should I do at this time? Of course, it is necessary to rebuild a bridge and connect the two sides again, that is, to bypass the damaged nerve and build a nerve bypass.

Comprehensively cure the whole process of sputum, intelligent relativity divides it into three stages. The first stage is brain-computer interaction, conscious expression, that is, letting people who have lost their ability to speak, such as gradual freezing patients, can achieve "ideas" Typing, the operation method is mainly by implanting electrodes in the brain, capturing precise electrical signals, and letting the electrodes communicate with the computer. At this stage, since 1998, the doctor installed an electrode in the brain of a non-talking person, so that It communicates with people through computers.

The second phase is completed on the basis of the first phase, namely brain-computer integration and consciousness manipulation. That is to allow the deaf people to manipulate external devices, such as robotic arms, through their own ideas.

The success of these two phases is attributed to the rapid development of brain-computer interface technology in recent years. People can decode the brain signals first, and then connect the brain with external devices through a computer hub to realize the expression of consciousness and the consciousness of manipulating the machinery. We can also understand one or two of the mechanical equipment used by the great scientist Hawking who has passed away.

The third stage may be closer to the patient's imagination, that is, to regain control with their own hands, to walk with their feet, that is, wireless network, control the trunk. That is, the wireless transmitter is used to transmit the signals of neurons in the brain to the electrical stimulator in the trunk to enable the trunk to move.

It is a key technology to let the lower limbs move themselves. People have experimented with rats and monkeys to make them stand and move. However, this technology is not yet mature and cannot be applied to humans.

Even if our current research has reached the third stage, there is still a long way to go to better help the recovery.

People got up from the chair, walked out of the room, closed the door... This series of actions, people probably don't even think about how they finished, but for scientists, these simple actions have very complicated information. The biggest problem here is the brain decoding. People's brain activity is like a sea of ​​signals. Scientists must eliminate countless interferences to find the key signals to control lower limb activity.

At the moment, the third stage we arrived, the electrical signals we rely on can only stretch and bend the torso, and we can't complete finer movements, such as picking up a needle. For the lower limbs, it is more difficult for us to change the direction of movement or to cross obstacles on the ground.

Second, if this wireless control technology is applied to humans, the overall problem must be considered, namely how to adapt to the body balance when walking upright.

Finally, paralyzed patients are prone to complications caused by long-term inactivity, such as pneumonia, fractures, blood clots, skin rupture, and intestinal diseases. The most important thing is that the muscle atrophy of the long-term paralyzed patients, the muscle elasticity is far less than the normal person, how to avoid the occurrence of complications, and the recovery of the patient's muscle elasticity is also necessary to think about the cure.

In the face of such a situation, artificial muscles may be a good way. At present, many teams are studying the project “Artificial Muscle”, which is also recognized by the industry as having great development potential. Fortunately, in China, we have made great progress.

According to the official website of Nanjing University, the school cooperated with Stanford University to design and synthesize a high-elastic self-healing material by using the coordination key. It can synthesize artificial muscles, and has the characteristics of high strain, good softness, light weight and no noise. .

In the future, this project is expected to add a lot of help to the imitation of artificial intelligence. In addition, this is also a boon for people with muscle defects.

The external torso problem has solved the problem, but the biggest problem is the transmission of brain signals. How do we capture the details of a million units of neuronal activity? It is also deep enough in the brain to reveal the principle of the brain's processing of sensory input signals, and to open the door to control sensory input.

Although it is difficult to observe brain signals, Rice University recently discovered a better and more direct way to observe the brain's signals. Currently, the research team is developing a flat microscope called FlatScope. It monitors and triggers modified neurons in our brain and is activated after activity. But how effective it is, it still needs to wait and see.

Because of the high degree of spinal cord injury, paralyzed patients cannot move their limbs and have no intuition, regardless of whether they are prosthetic or "artificial muscles". These media in contact with the outside world are fake and lack a real perception system. Even if we use the true torso of our body, we still can't feel the feedback from the body because it stimulates the body's electronic components in the trunk by wireless brain damage around the nervous system.

In the experiment, although the different types of stimulation given to the muscles can actually bring different feelings to the brain, the specific correspondence between the neural coding and the body perception is still unclear. At present, the only feedback that can be used in neuroprosthetics is visual, which means that participants can watch the brain control the operation of the torso and make corrections. However, once the object is grasped, only the sensory information conveyed through the body can be subtly Manipulate this object.

Moreover, it is very important to produce a real sense of body. For example, the hands of lovers, the hugs between friends, the feelings of love and warmth depend on the strength and warmth that the torso feels when touched.

Faced with the patient's perceived needs, by determining the exact way of electrode implantation, the somatosensory cortical area of ​​the brain is stimulated to produce a specific sensation, and it is very important to write a corresponding dictionary of the relationship between electrode stimulation and body sensation.

In recent years, scientists have been working on this. Caltech scientists have used a tiny set of electrodes to stimulate a certain area of ​​the brain, which for the first time caused a natural feeling on the arm of a paralyzed patient. This breakthrough also allows us to see the hope that paralyzed patients naturally perceive the outside world.

Millions of people around the world suffer from ravages. These patients are always trying their best to take a small step, struggling to maintain their shrinking body in the disease, and they want to escape the wheelchair all the time. Accompanied life. At present, although the healing technology and sensing technology of wireless brain-body electronic components have not yet reached maturity, under the efforts of all parties, it is believed that people will eventually stand up and perceive the temperature of the world.