<story><title>Scientists Watch Thoughts Form in the Brain</title><url>http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mind-aglow-scientists-watch-thoughts-form-in-the-brain/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bsbechtel</author><text>For all the hype surrounding AI, virtual reality, and augmented reality as being the next big trends in tech, I really feel like brain&amp;#x2F;computer interfaces are what is really going to change our world in unprecedented ways. The technology is still a long, long ways from having a visible impact for most people, but I am more interested&amp;#x2F;excited&amp;#x2F;scared about this technology than anything else going on in the tech world right now.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ericjang</author><text>There are some very difficult challenges in brain-computer interfaces (BCI), some of which involve huge barriers presented by human biology. It&amp;#x27;s rather depressing.&lt;p&gt;Presently, there is no good way to read data from the brain to a device. You can drill a hole in your head and patch-clamp some electrodes to your brain tissue, but this procedure is only recommended for treating debilitating diseases like Parkinson&amp;#x27;s. Furthermore, there is the issue of scar tissue developing over time as a small region of your brain is being bombarded with electricity &amp;#x2F; contact with foreign metals that trigger immune response.&lt;p&gt;I do think a spinal tap of some sort might make more sense (rather than patching directly into brain tissue like in the Matrix), but you still get scar tissue.&lt;p&gt;Non-invasive methods don&amp;#x27;t have scar tissue, but it&amp;#x27;s unclear whether measuring the surface activity of the brain yields sufficient information. Furthermore, they are highly noisy due to ambient static and muscle activity. You shouldn&amp;#x27;t move much if you want o.k. readings.&lt;p&gt;The BCI dream is to have a lightweight headset that you put behind your ears like in Iron Man 3 or Big Hero 6 (and then you control robots with your mere thoughts). However, I think that kind of technology is &lt;i&gt;really&lt;/i&gt; far away, short of some huge breakthroughs in compressed sensing and possibly superconductor physics.&lt;p&gt;Even more difficult than reading data is writing it back in. There have been very early results with getting monkeys to telepathically control each other&amp;#x27;s muscle movements, but my understanding is that it&amp;#x27;s not very reliable.&lt;p&gt;A reasonable survey can be found here: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencedirect.com&amp;#x2F;science&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;pii&amp;#x2F;S1110866515000237&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencedirect.com&amp;#x2F;science&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;pii&amp;#x2F;S1110866515...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Scientists Watch Thoughts Form in the Brain</title><url>http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mind-aglow-scientists-watch-thoughts-form-in-the-brain/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bsbechtel</author><text>For all the hype surrounding AI, virtual reality, and augmented reality as being the next big trends in tech, I really feel like brain&amp;#x2F;computer interfaces are what is really going to change our world in unprecedented ways. The technology is still a long, long ways from having a visible impact for most people, but I am more interested&amp;#x2F;excited&amp;#x2F;scared about this technology than anything else going on in the tech world right now.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tlow</author><text>I think that one of the major hurdles to BCI is the mechanism of connection. When electrodes are connected to neurons they have a tendency to be destroyed. However, one might imagine the development of sophisticated electromagnetic equipment which might suitable focus and modulate &amp;quot;receptor pathways&amp;quot; in the brain. This seems far off.
Eyes are convenient sensory organs to utilize for input. Getting directly to the brain seems more like trying to manipulate electron flow in a PCB without removing the external enclosure. (not to say that&amp;#x27;s impossible, just not as easy as cutting a trace and soldering in a connection)</text></comment>