2024-07-30 17:29:51
It’s one of billionaire Elon Musk’s many projects. A brain implant could restore sight to people born blind. His startup Neuralink is working on a crazy project called “Blindsight.” Last March, the businessman claimed that the brain implants were already working in monkeys.
“Resolution will start out low, like early Nintendo graphics, but may eventually exceed normal human vision”, added the Tesla and SpaceX boss.
wrong principle
But Elon Musk’s plan is based on this principle “Incorrect“Implanting millions of small electrodes in parts of the brain responsible for processing visual information will result in high-resolution vision,” said Ione Fine, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington and co-author of the study published in the journal Science. Report.
Researchers used animal and human data to create a computer model, a virtual patient, to study the experience of “blindsight” brain implants. “Engineers often think of electrodes as creating pixels, but that’s not how biology works”, explains Ione Fine.
Achieving good vision requires not just stimulating a single cell, like an implant, but also creating neural code that spreads to thousands of cells. For Ione Fine, scientists are still far from knowing how to create the neural code needed to restore sight to blind people, meaning the results from Mr Musk’s implants will be limited.
“Many people go blind in old age“wait”We may despair of ever regaining our sight“, continued the professor.”So when Elon Musk says something like this will transcend human vision“, it’s dangerous”.
Fremont, Calif.-based Neuralink implanted its first brain implant in January in Noland Arbaugh, a 29-year-old patient who became a quadriplegic after a diving accident.
1722364502
#Musks #brain #implants #promise #superhuman #vision #questioned #researchers
