This research article focuses on the story of a person deserving of admiration and recognition. Individuals with exceptional qualities set out on an endless journey of research to ensure humanity’s survival. Many researchers have made significant efforts to protect human well-being. I have dreams while sleeping, but due to my disease, I am unable to put their content into words. Understanding someone’s emotions without verbal communication is a difficult task for every person, but has technology surpassed this? We are on the verge of being able to understand and feel emotions. Research and technological innovation are making it possible for humankind.
Nolan Arba was implanted with a new neuralink
This individual, Nolan Arba, is the first human being to receive the neuralink brain implant that was developed by Elon Musk Company. It is time to discuss how Neuralink technology has already started to transform the world. The man about whom we have all been speculating for the past two months, Nolan Arba, finally had the chance to tell his own story, and his neural engineer was the one who was holding the camera. Nolan, who is 29 years old, has been living as a quadriplegic for the past eight years. This is because he suffered a dislocation of his C4 and C5 vertebrae during a diving accident. These are bones that are situated in the middle of the neck, exactly in the middle of the distance between the base of your skull and the middle of your collar bone.
The state of affairs of the Nolan Arba
Nolan has no sensation or control of his body from his shoulders down, but that hasn’t stopped him from remaining incredibly positive about his life, and now, thanks to neuralink, it isn’t stopping him from playing video games. Nolan Neuralink Implant currently has a neuralink and one brain-computer interface chip implanted underneath his scalp, sitting flush with the bone of his skull underneath. Nolan’s brain has 64 tiny wires implanted into its surface, specifically targeting the motor cortex region, about 2 mm in depth. This device translates his brain waves into digital command prompts.
Nolan engages in gaming and listens to music
There is no way to tell that Nolan is playing a game of virtual chess because it is virtually identical to a person using a computer mouse. Nolan presses the pause button on the background music, and then he moves the cursor around the screen in a way that is both quick and smooth, in a manner that appeared to be effortless before the operation. Previously, to control his laptop, Nolan would have to use a mouth stick. However, he is now using a Bluetooth signal, which is transmitted directly from a small computer chip embedded in his skull to his device.
Nolan Learning to Use describes the process
His neuralink was a learning experience for everyone, as engineers who have been working on this product for nearly a decade had never had the opportunity to hear feedback on how it feels to use it. They can make educated guesses about what’s going on inside a monkey’s mind, but having a human subject with whom you can converse is a huge step forward. With the team, Nolan worked on two approaches: attempted movement and imagined movement. The team concentrated on the attempted movement, hoping to move his hand to control the mouse in a way similar to his pre-injury routine, using the intact neural pathways associated with movement as triggers for device control.
This is his level of confidence to scarify a man who takes risks
According to Nolan, this quickly became the most natural way for him to use his neural abilities. He only needs to visualize the cursor’s movement, treating it like a forceful object. He simply looks at the area on the screen, and the cursor moves accordingly. You can tell how effortless this is because Nolan is talking to his neural engineer and the camera while also playing chess, demonstrating his ability to multitask between physical activity and neural link activity. Nolan has only had the implant since January 28th. The technology is impressive, but what stands out is how much of a positive impact this technology has already had on Nolan’s life. He discusses how he was able to stay up all night playing a video game for the first time in years, something that most of us take for granted, but Nolan was only able to use devices such as his computer and iPad while sitting in his chair, and while sitting, he requires constant care to readjust his weight and avoid developing pressure. Source: The neuralink’s wireless connection enables him to work and play while lying in bed, where he can remain unattended for hours at a time. This allows him to be more independent than he would have been without the implant.
Words of the Nolan
In his own words, Nolan describes his new life. Please listen to this. It’s completely insane. Simply put, it is. It is cool. Being a part of this process is something that I consider to be incredible luck. To put it another way, it seems as though we are gaining new knowledge daily, and I just don’t know how to adequately express how awesome it is to be able to do this in terms of the drawbacks associated with his procedure. According to Nolan, the most significant limitation is the issue of dealing with battery life. The Nerlink chip can operate for a total of eight hours after a single charge. Nolan has stated that he must wait for the device to recharge before he can use it again. It is now common knowledge that neuralink does not permit patients to use the device while simultaneously charging it. This course of action makes perfect sense, as the company does not want to expose the implant to the possibility of overheating. It’s highly likely that they also avoid fast charging for the same reason they perform the implant procedure.
Neuralink will provide significant advantages for individuals with paralysis.
Nolan was very positive about his experience. He says that the surgery was super easy, and he was released from the hospital later on this same day. He also mentioned that he has not experienced any cognitive impairments since getting his neural implant. Nolan may be the first human to use a neuralink announced in September last year that they were recruiting the first human test subjects for the N1 brain computer interface and R1 surgical robot that will implant it. The main goal of the Prime study, which stands for precise robotically implanted brain-computer interface, is to make sure that both the implant and the robot are safe for humans to use. The study will also examine the functionality of the N1, aiming to enable paralysed individuals to manipulate external devices using their thoughts. We anticipate that the first human trial will take up to 6 years to complete and verify its findings. The primary study period will take place over the first 18 months.
The medical team and the future of the neuralink
The neuralink team will conduct brain-computer interface (BCI) research sessions lasting one hour at least twice a week for each patient throughout the primary study, which will last for eighteen months beginning in 2021. In 2022, Nuring performed a total of 155 surgeries on sheep, pigs, and monkeys. A typical FDA human trial would restrict the medical company to conducting only one human experiment in the first year, followed by a lengthy cooling down period to evaluate the results. However, in the case of neuralink, thanks to their established track record with animal testing and the massive outpouring of interest from potential human patients, the company has already received approval for multiple human surgeries in 2024.
What will be the next?
The current plan for neural implants is to perform 11 human implants in 2024, to increase the number to 27 in 2025 and 79 in 2026 if everything goes according to plan. If everything goes according to plan, Neuralink will begin to truly ramp up its operations after this point. In 2027, the company anticipates a total of 499 surgical procedures, and then Up until the year 2030, the company intends to achieve exponential growth, and by that time, they intend to have performed 22,2204 surgical procedures in a single year. Even though this number might not be typical, it is a very ambitious goal to strive for. Permit me to take a moment. In conclusion, take into consideration the outcomes that we have observed up to this point and discuss the BCI World cursor control implementation that we have just observed.
Nolan’s optimism and confidence levels are noteworthy
This has been possible for several decades now, so the development of Nolan Perform is not a recent innovation in the industry. Nevertheless, it is remarkable that a patient can accomplish this task wirelessly while lying in the comfort of their bed, without any hardware or wire protruding from their head, and without any assistance from outside sources. Only a few devices can accomplish this, and Neuralink has succeeded in becoming one of them. The procedure known as Neuralink is also considered to be extremely invasive. Because there is a computer embedded beneath the patient’s skin and a hole in the patient’s head, this is a pretty significant development. The fact that patients like Nolan are putting themselves in a very precarious situation shouldn’t surprise anyone. Not only is he an exceptionally upbeat and optimistic individual, but he is also very courageous because he will be the first person to experience the long-term effects of the procedure before anyone else.
The potential of neural networks, imagination, and reality
Whatever they might be, this is a known unknown, but the reason he or anyone in the initial study is doing this is because the potential upside is worth the risk right now. We are not seeing Nuring doing anything that hasn’t been done before with BCI, but we are also seeing less than 1% of the capability of the neuralink device being used, even for a very similar modern BCI implant cursor control, which is about the best they will ever accomplish, which is still amazing and perfectly valid, but due to the invasive nature of the implant and the level of engineering and innovation that we’ve already seen from neuralink. Neural networks possess the potential to accomplish unprecedented feats, such as restoring eyesight to the blind, restoring physical movement to the paralysed, and reversing degenerative brain disease. However, we remain uncertain about the hardware’s ultimate limit. Neuralink has promised to continue telling the story of Nolan and their first human study. There will be amazing things to come that people would have never believed possible, and there could also be tragedy. This is only the beginning of the beginning.
This research article is about technology innovation. The company Neuralink has researched the BCI and how a man can express his thoughts and feelings in words by using technology. This article aims to inform readers about the importance of research in innovation and technology, which facilitates human progress.
By
Dr. Abid Hussain Nawaz
Post Doc, PhD, MPhil
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Great work Dr abid Hussain Nawaz. Really innovation changes our patterns of lives day by day..
Highly appreciated Dr Abid. Your dedication and work highly appreciated
What will be the disadvantages of neuralink and what if the Ai become more powerful what will we do or how will we tackle up this
as we know, automation makes our work easier. The developed programmes and algorithms help to perform work, and these were developed by humans, so AI will be more powerful in the future but will not capture the human mind’s capacity for thinking.
AI Technology has greatly advanced the field of medicine, it not only makes life easier for disabled people but also gives hope in life. Thank you sir g.very informative article.
Very impressive sir. If i am not wrong similar technology had been implanted with Stephen hawking while he was on wheel chair and completely paralyzed
Awesome