/ News
11,000-electrode reprogrammable chip takes brain-computer interfaces to a new level
The ability to dynamically reconfigure hardware components has become critical to many computing systems. For example, to maintain optimal performance when the protocols, data rates, or physical medium attachment (PMA) layers change in communications systems, it is often essential to able to change more than just the software. Modern FPGA (field-programmable gate array) chips, which can be partially reconfigured at run time, are now in ubiquitous use to meet some of these needs in dedicated systems. For the rapidly advancing class of chips that have been developed to communicate with the brain, the ability to dynamically reconfigure the interface nodes has emerged as one of the most desirable features. A group of researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has built a powerful new chip that can be rapidly adapted to changing conditions at its interface points. Furthermore, they have used their chip to show that the speed of communication between neurons is not independent from any computations a brain might be said to perform, but rather, it is an essential component of the computation itself.
The chip developed by the Swiss group has some 11,011 electrodes packed into a CMOS chip with area less than 2x2mm. At 3,150 electrodes per square millimeter, that’s a higher density than anything we have seen to date. High-density chips with up to 65,000 stimulation sites have been manufactured before by other groups, but they generally have had little or no record (measure) ability. The key feature here is that the 126 signal-conditioned and amplified channels can be dynamically switched within a few milliseconds to any of the electrode sites in the grid, permitting multiresolutional access to neurons in its field on different spatial scales. The analog switch matrix which makes this possible consists of 13,00 static RAM cells which set the routing.
What the researchers have essentially built here is a voltage microscope for neurons. When they trained it on an individual cell, the researchers could actually watch the real time propagation of an electrical spike down an axon. Suprisingly, they found that the speed of this pulse changed from moment to moment at every segment along the axon. Normally in the brain, the axons are wrapped up by special glial cells called oligodendrocytes, which make signal transmission more efficient. Glial cells were part of the culture preparation used here, but it is not clear to what extent, if any, they participated in these regulatory effects. In the absence of functional oligodendrocytes, the axons themselves could in theory control propagation speed by altering the density of ion channels in their membranes.
The researchers were able to stimulate different points in the grid to generate spikes going in either direction down axons. Their analysis did not specifically address the interesting question of whether spikes sent in the normal direction (away from the cell body), actually propagate faster by virtue of directionally-organized machinery based on the subcellular cytoskeleton — but that could in principle be investigated later.
The ability to “watch” neurons electrically on multiple scales has many advantages over techniques that rely on slower, and potentially phototoxic, imaging dyes. Not to take anything away from them them, bu these optical reporters sometimes interfere with the natural cell physiology and, as for the case of calcium dyes, can modulate the very effect they attempt to measure. When mapped to its highest resolution, the chip could actually resolve changes in the shape and position of the axons over time. Theoretically these movements could be correlated with the electrical activity, giving new insight into how neurons grow and interconnect. Being able to watch these movements is useful to understand what happens when the signal drops out after the recording has been going on for a while. Often this loss is attributed to changes in electrode impedance from build up of extracellular material, or other reactive tissue effects, but in fact it could just be that the cell has moved.
As these new chips are adapted to more complex 3D geometries they will be better suited for use inside intact brains. Undoubtedly they will be of great value in creating stable, and more nimble, interfaces to the brain.
Source: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/161902-11000-electrode-reprogrammable-chip-takes-brain-computer-interfaces-to-a-new-level
/ About us
Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
/ Follow us at:
/ Contact:
For additional information, partnerships and sponsorship, contact:
info@2045.com
Media requesting information and interviews, contact PR@2045.com
LinkedIn
LiveJournal
Google
Twitter
Facebook
Я.ру
ВКонтакте
Mail.ru