Syringe injectable electronics (2015)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4591029/

by RangerScience • 9 years ago

106 24 9 years ago

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

westmeal• 9 years ago

Oh wow. This could be extremely useful for the medical field. Where can I get a watch injected into my wrist?

lgas• 9 years ago

Shenzhen

nine_k2• 9 years ago

I can imagine a hearing aid installed by injecting the electrodes right into the nerves, and then passing the audio signal electronically.

I wonder if this is going to help e.g. paralyzed patients to re-wire (some of) their muscles. Will likely help to wire up prosthetic limbs.

RangerScience2• 9 years ago

Yes and no?

(Disclosure: I are software dev and do not know medical anything but can read good, so I just do a lot of that)

Neural implants ALREADY re-wire muscles; more, they can actually stimulate nerve regrowth (you trying to use those paths actually help them recover; Kill Bill style). I don't see this improving that effect, except that it's a better form of implant (less downsides)...

...however, I wouldn't be surprised if it was better enough than existing implants that you can do something new; namely, make artificial nerves to replace damaged ones... and I wouldn't be further surprised if the effects of the mesh act as a scaffold to promote cell regrowth, like the 3D printed organs.

therein• 9 years ago

LTP is a wonderful thing. Your brain grew that network before and now it is fading away. The only thing stopping you from replicating it is the missing medium and if we provide that before you lose the network, it may be able to.

nine_k2• 9 years ago

Yes, we already have the tech for interfacing nerves. This way nerves can be reached with reasonable precision without surgery, likely without a visit to a hospital.

adrianN• 9 years ago

There are implanted hearing aids, they currently require more complicated surgery than just an injection though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochlear_implant

gervase• 9 years ago

This article is from 2015 - could we get a date tag on the title?

RangerScience2• 9 years ago

Hot damn, this got a lot of points, but no discussion.

The basic TL;DR is that they figured out a thing that works really, really well as a neural implant material (a mesh). They spent a lot of time figuring out the ideal details for this mesh, and a bunch more time looking at how it interacted with the brain.

Here's some TL;DR from the bulk of the paper:

Normal implants have the issue that the don't move the same way as brain tissue, so anything that jostles the brain causes the implant to carve paths through the brain. Since this is a mesh, it moves with the brain.

Injecting a "normal" mesh, you just get a sort of tube of stuff where you injected it. Because of the shape of this mesh, it tries to uncoil; but does so slowly enough that it doesn't damage the brain tissue. One of the major points of the study is the specifics of this mesh (which is basically just an angle).

Because it's a mesh, neurons actually really like growing on it, so they form a bunch of handy connections to it.

One fun thing you can then do is grow brain tissue in the petri dish with the mesh, and you'll get something with real nice connections.

As an aside, this is actually the first paper that I went: "Fuck it, I'm going to read Science"; that it was actually so unexpectedly accessible has started a trend of actually reading the science behind things. I recommend it!

ExactoKnight• 9 years ago

How much damage to surrounding brain cells would (could) occur from injecting this into someone's brain?

T-A• 9 years ago

Enough that it is not considered a viable approach for general purpose BCIs in adult subjects. You can get away with injecting one to study or affect a small localized region, but that's about it [source: chat with a Lieber lab collaborator].

Unless of course you get Cultured and put it in place at the embryonic stage, so the brain grows into it.

gpderetta• 9 years ago

'cultured' as in 'cell culture' or as 'embraced by the Culture' (where the 'neural lace' comes from)?

have an upvote.

/dontexplainthejoke

littledouglas• 9 years ago

What's stopping a malevolent AI from controlling humans who are connected via neural lace?

userbinator• 9 years ago

Forget AI, for me this is evoking visions of government-mind-control creepiness.

jclardy• 9 years ago

This is the more likely scenario.

yscik• 9 years ago

Having a computer and radio in your brain doesn't mean you have to expose access to anything via the radio link. Even if you want to, there has to be software in between the connection to the meat and any APIs you provide for controlling your body, mapping intentions to raw signals for the neurons. This would have some form of access-control and safety features.

Teever• 9 years ago

How will you know if the safety features have not been compromised?

ceejayoz2• 9 years ago

What's stopping a malevolent AI from controlling humans who are connected via neural lace?

Other than that they don't exist, you mean?

MichaelGG• 9 years ago

A general AI, especially a "malevolent" one, is such a mind-blowingly powerful entity that these questions are rather pointless. A self-improving GAI could rapidly take over the planet and have a myriad ways of "controlling humans".

I'd be far more concerned with other humans messing with it. And before that, just bugs and other damage.

rrggrr• 9 years ago

Humans aren't good for much. Why expend energy controlling and sustaining what you can replace and outperform.

chatmasta• 9 years ago

Looks like this is the technology behind Elon Musk's recent Neuralink [0] venture (investment?)

[0] http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/27/15077864/elon-musk-neurali...

Syringe injectable electronics (2015)

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