Published on Jun 05, 2023
Brain chips are made with a view to enhance the memory of human beings, to help paralyzed patients, and are also intended to serve military purposes. It is likely that implantable computer chips acting as sensors, or actuators, may soon assist not only failing memory, but even bestow fluency in a new language, or enable "recognition" of previously unmet individuals. The progress already made in therapeutic devices, in prosthetics and in computer science indicates that it may well be feasible to develop direct interfaces between the brain and computers. This technology is only under developmental phase, although many implants have already been made on the human brain for experimental purposes.
Brain - Pacemakers
Researchers at the crossroads of medicine and electronics are developing implantable silicon neurons that one day could carry out the functions of a part of the brain that has been damaged by stroke, epilepsy or Alzheimer's disease.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration have approved implantable neurostimulators and drug pumps for the treatment of chronic pain, spasticity and diabetes, according to a spokesman for Medtronic Inc. (Minneapolis). A sponsor of the Capri conference, Medtronic says it is already delivering benefits in neural engineering through its Activa therapy, which uses an implantable neurostimulator, commonly called a brain pacemaker, to treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
Surgeons implant a thin, insulated, coiled wire with four electrodes at the tip, and then thread an extension of that wire under the skin from the head, down the neck and into the upper chest. That wire is connected to the neurostimulator, a small, sealed patient-controlled device that produces electrical pulses to stimulate the brain.
