Brain-Computer Interfacing: 6 Fascinating Applications

Roald Dahl's Matilda. Jean Grey from the X-Men. Darth Vader. They are amongst countless fictional characters who control their surroundings with their minds, an idea that has long fascinated us. Thanks to a rapidly emerging field of technology, what was once purely within the realm of science fiction is increasingly becoming fact. Rather than telekinesis, this article explores the brain-computer interface.

A brain-computer interface (BCI) - AKA brain-machine interface - is a direct, and sometimes bidirectional, communication pathway between the brain and a computer or external device. As the name suggests, BCIs are devices that interface with the brain, using brain or nervous system data to enable interaction with the environment.

There are several ways to measure brain activity for BCIs, including:

• Electroencephalography (EEG): Electrodes are placed on the scalp, which measure brain activity and translate the recorded brain signals into commands. EEG is non-invasive and relatively inexpensive, but has relatively low spatial resolution (making it harder to determine the exact location of signals in the brain).
• Electrocorticography (ECoG): ECoG-based BCIs are characterised by electrodes being placed on the brain itself, usually through a hole in the skull. ECoG has higher spatial and temporal resolution than scalp EEG, but is more invasive.
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): A strong magnetic field and radio waves measure blood flow in the brain. fMRI-BCI is non-invasive and records neuronal activity with high spatial resolution, but a major drawback is the time-lag between neural activity and imaging, limiting temporal resolution.

Once brain activity has been measured by whichever means, it is translated into commands to control an external device, most often using machine learning algorithms.

Here, I explore six applications of this technology within the healthcare industry and expanding into other areas.

1. Paralysis and Amputation

For those who have undergone amputation or are suffering from paralysis, brain-computer interfaces might offer the opportunity to control a communication device, using their thoughts to send text messages or emails. Clinical trial participants with tetraplegia have operated everyday tablets using a BCI to chat and browse the internet. One participant has even played Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" on a digital piano interface. BCI technology has already proven beneficial for communication in patients with locked-in syndrome.

Although this technology is still in its infancy, it opens up a new world for people with amputations, who may be able to control assistive devices or prosthetics with their thoughts. Esper Bionics uses BCIs and AI for the development of smart human prosthesis, including a hand that 'gets better with use'.

2. Depression

BCIs have the power to monitor and regulate brain activity associated with mood and emotion. In China, neuromodulation treatments have been employed for patients with depression that has proven resistant to drugs, though the ethics of this study have been called into question.

More recently, Eddie Chang, neurosurgeon and brain-computer interface pioneer at the University of California, San Francisco Weill Institute for Neurosciences, has not only led a groundbreaking study in the sphere of BCIs for paralysis, but has explained to the Wall Street Journal how BCIs may be able to help patients with mental-health conditions, perhaps even in conjunction with psychedelics.

3. Treating Addiction

Addiction is a chronic brain disorder affecting thousands of people in the UK alone. Be is alcohol, drugs, or gambling, when a person develops addiction, it is because their brain has started to change. It seems to make sense, then, to look to the brain when considering new treatments.

A recent study has investigated the effects of using BCI technology to treat alcohol and drug-dependent individuals. Cognitive remediation therapies and a BCI method were used to address neurobehavioural imbalances and the impact of treatments on sobriety rates was assessed. At an 18-month follow-up, the sobriety rate of a non-treatment group was 31%, compared with 89% of the group treated with these technological methods.

4. Controlling Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a neurological condition causing seizures, bursts of electrical activity in the brain that temporarily affect how it works. Brain-computer interface devices could offer a treatment, particularly for patients with refactory epilepsy (around 30% of epileptic patients do not respond to drugs). The technology could help people with epilepsy in terms of seizure detection, prediction, and termination; BCIs in the last category are still in their experimental stage.

耶鲁大学 researchers have recently been awarded a grant by the Swebilius Foundation to develop novel BCI chips to treat epilepsy. The interdisciplinary team have found that short-circuiting the path neurons fire during a seizure can reduce the seizure rate in patients.

“When the signature traits of a seizure are observed, the device stimulates that part of the brain, and it is not curative, but over time 60 percent of patients will get 50 percent fewer seizures than they had before”

said Dennis Spencer, professor emeritus of neurosurgery.

5. Workplace Optimisation

As BCIs can assess the cognitive state of an individual, research is exploring how neurotechnology may be used in the workplace. This could be for something as simple as adapting office lighting to enhance productivity, through to improving safety by preventing the use of a company car if drowsiness is detected. In industrial work settings, accidents could be avoided if the environment is designed using BCIs to take into account the mental state of those operating machinery.

6. Videogames

It is perhaps when we depart from medicine and wellbeing and enter the sphere of entertainment that BCIs raise different questions. Neural implants have long been associated with cyberpunk literature and cinema ('Neuromancer', 'The Matrix', 'Ghost in the Shell'), in which they have been tied to corruption and class dominance. Ethical concerns around adopting BCIs for non-medical purposes are not insignificant, given the potential scope for mind control by altering brain activity, surveillance, or coercion.

However, when applied purely to videogaming, the improved immersion offered to game participants is surely exciting. BCIs could augment existing game platforms, allowing players to move objects with their minds. Whilst much of the advancement in this area has been in single-person games, BrainNet is a multi-person brain-to-brain interface for collaborative Tetris-esque gaming.

BCIs could open up new and fascinating avenues for gameplay, permitting greater accessibility for those with physical disabilities, as aforementioned in this article, and even supporting training and education.

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Brain-computer interface technology remains at an embryonic stage, and there are many ethical questions as well as technical challenges to be addressed as we look to the future of medicine, healthcare, and beyond. BCIs may continue to revolutionise the lives of people with disabilities, but might they also be abused by corporations to exploit personal data or manipulate consumer behaviour? What are your thoughts?