Neuroprosthetics
The Melding of Man and Machine
“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology,” proclaimed the narrator at the introduction of the 1970s TV series, The Six Million Dollar Man. The program depicts a scene where scientists are hard at work reconstructing the shattered body of a crash victim with the use of bionic implants the victim could control with his mind. While controlling prosthetics with one’s mind may seem nothing more than science fiction or fantasy someone came up with in their spare time, modern research suggests otherwise. Current research has shown that scientists are not that far off from making this fantasy a reality, brain implants, or otherwise known as neuroprosthetics, are an emerging reality much like how laser eye …show more content…
In order for a working neuroprosthetic to achieve its set function, it must overcome a series of challenges. As is required of any form of implanted device, it must meet the requirement of being small enough to be considered minimally invasive while also being able to communicate with the outside world wirelessly. Having wires sticking out of your head is not the most appealing idea nor is it the most ideal solution to the problem. The minimal size the device would require it to have no battery to be imbedded in the device, it would have to operate on an extremely low power consumption if it is not to harm any of the body’s surrounding tissue with an increase in temperature. Another very important issue in regards to the technology itself, is the material of which the device is made of. The more biocompatible the material is with the body and the surrounding tissue, the less of a reaction the device will cause thus resulting in an overall lower risk and a longer implantation period. The next challenge is a better way for doctors to safely insert the probes necessary to place the electrodes into people’s brains. Currently the safest option is to “drill small holes through the skull and to insert long, thin electrodes until they reach their destination deep inside the brain.” (Marcus) Neuroprosthetics will require a great deal of advances before there is an easy way to gain access to the device once it has been implanted and the skull is sealed back up. However once a biocompatible device has been created and solves the previously mentioned challenges, the final obstacle will be the creation of a way to interpret the complex information the nerve cells in the brain pass along to the rest of the human
“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology,” proclaimed the narrator at the introduction of the 1970s TV series, The Six Million Dollar Man. The program depicts a scene where scientists are hard at work reconstructing the shattered body of a crash victim with the use of bionic implants the victim could control with his mind. While controlling prosthetics with one’s mind may seem nothing more than science fiction or fantasy someone came up with in their spare time, modern research suggests otherwise. Current research has shown that scientists are not that far off from making this fantasy a reality, brain implants, or otherwise known as neuroprosthetics, are an emerging reality much like how laser eye …show more content…
In order for a working neuroprosthetic to achieve its set function, it must overcome a series of challenges. As is required of any form of implanted device, it must meet the requirement of being small enough to be considered minimally invasive while also being able to communicate with the outside world wirelessly. Having wires sticking out of your head is not the most appealing idea nor is it the most ideal solution to the problem. The minimal size the device would require it to have no battery to be imbedded in the device, it would have to operate on an extremely low power consumption if it is not to harm any of the body’s surrounding tissue with an increase in temperature. Another very important issue in regards to the technology itself, is the material of which the device is made of. The more biocompatible the material is with the body and the surrounding tissue, the less of a reaction the device will cause thus resulting in an overall lower risk and a longer implantation period. The next challenge is a better way for doctors to safely insert the probes necessary to place the electrodes into people’s brains. Currently the safest option is to “drill small holes through the skull and to insert long, thin electrodes until they reach their destination deep inside the brain.” (Marcus) Neuroprosthetics will require a great deal of advances before there is an easy way to gain access to the device once it has been implanted and the skull is sealed back up. However once a biocompatible device has been created and solves the previously mentioned challenges, the final obstacle will be the creation of a way to interpret the complex information the nerve cells in the brain pass along to the rest of the human