Comment by LeBlanc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by LeBlanc | Hacker News Reader

A lot of this research is going towards developing neuro-prosthetics. The primary application of neuro-prosthetics in humans is to give paraplegics either the ability to control a cursor with their mind (a huge improvement in standard of living) OR the ability to control a prosthetic arm or leg with their mind (the long term goal).

Currently, this is only available with invasive brain surgery that can often have complications. So money spent on better imaging and implant technologies will have a strong positive impact on the field.

Interestingly, the researchers I know in this area are confused about why such a big deal is being made about this "Brain Initiative" because the amount ($70M) is actually not a lot given how capital intensive this type of research is and how many labs it will be spread amongst. Still, any funding is better than no funding.

I'm at Stanford's neural prosthetic systems lab which has previously been funded largely under the DARPA REPAIR program.

Minor point of clarification - while the surgeries to implant the electrode arrays are technically a neurosurgery, they're minimally invasive in the sense that it doesn't actually disturb or destroy any brain tissue since the motor cortex is accessible from the outer surface. The primary concerns now are not complications with surgery, but performance of the electrodes over timescales required by patients (several years minimum).

I'm not aware of any significant complications in any of the BrainGate clinical trial participants to date (if there have been, I'm not aware of them and would be a little surprised to hear it).

>they're minimally invasive in the sense that it doesn't actually disturb or destroy any brain tissue since the motor cortex is accessible from the outer surface.

There's a slogan, "you're never the same after the air hits your brain". Is that hyperbole then?

That is true - I don't know how many grants/VC rounds a company like Braingate has blown through. The Andersen group seems to have success as well, maybe with less actual expenditures.

The neuroscience community in general has had mixed reactions to the Brain initiative during the period where we haven't had much information. It was initially announced as something much larger, then pared back, and it wasn't clear whether it would come from existing funds or from newly allocated funds, which was the main question most researchers had.

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