Sunday Newsletter (No. 3): Telepathic technology, therapeutic gaming and health data
“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.” - Marcus Aurelius
Here’s a few interesting things that have been happening recently:
Brain technology. How the brain works is largely still a mystery. Neural activity controls human functions, from unconscious activities such as breathing, to conscious actions such as movement and communication. These functions can be lost as a result of disease or injury. The goal of brain machine interfaces (BMIs) is to restore such functions by recording brain signals and using these signals to create a desired output function, such as movement of a prosthetic limb or controlling a computer cursor. BMI research emerged in the 1950s and the technology has been rapidly progressing in recent years. This week, Kernel, a biotech startup focused on non-invasive brain recording technology, announced a $53 million funding round. Their products include ‘Speller’, which allows a person to spell out words simply by looking at the letters on a screen, and ‘Sound ID’, which reads brain signals to work out the sound a person is listening to. Neuralink is another company in the BMI space, founded by Elon Musk. This week, he announced that there would be an update on Neuralink’s progress on 28th August, the first update from the company in about a year. Musk’s initial goal is to use this technology to treat patients with neurological conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, but his future vision is that Neuralink will allow direct brain-to-brain communication between people (essentially telepathy). Using this technology for the treatment of medical conditions makes sense, but ethical considerations arise in cases where it could be used to enhance mental or physical functions in healthy people.
Links:
iHuman perspective: Neural interfaces (The Royal Society) - quick intro to BMIs
Brain-machine interfaces: from basic science to neuroprostheses and neurorehabilitation (Physiological Reviews) - more detailed paper
Kernel raises $53 million for its non-invasive “Neuroscience as a service” technology (TechCrunch)
Kernel: Hello humanity (Kernel)
Neuralink and the brain’s magical future (Tim Urban, Wait But Why)
Therapeutic video games. The FDA recently approved it’s first ever therapeutic video game. EndeavorRx is used to improve attention function in children (8-12 years old) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In the game, the player has to navigate a digital environment faced with distractions. In clinical trials, the TOVA (test of variables of attention), a performance test that objectively measures attention and inhibitory control, was used to compare the effectiveness of EndeavorRx against a control video game (a word search game). EndeavorRx was shown to significantly improve ADHD symptoms in children, based on results of the TOVA. Typically, ADHD patients are treated with drugs such as Ritalin (UK) and Adderall (US) - the effectiveness of EndeavorRx is a positive step in potentially decreasing reliance on drugs for the treatment of such conditions. However, one area the study didn’t cover was long-term effects: if children stop playing EndeavorRx, do the improvements in attention persist over time?
Links:
GoogleBit. In November, Google confirmed that it was planning to acquire wearables company FitBit for $2.1 billion. The deal hasn’t gone through yet and the rumour is that there are concerns about the personal health data that Google will have access to as a result of the acquisition, in particular the use of this data to sell ads. The European Commission will be deciding on the deal in the next few week or so (by 20th July), and the US Department of Justice and Australian regulator will also be looking at the deal. Should we be concerned about the copious amount of health and wellness data that Google may soon have access to, or do they already have so much that this will just be an additional drop in the ocean?
Links:
Exclusive: Google can ward off EU antitrust probe into Fitbit deal with data pledge (Reuters)
Google is acquiring FitBit for $2.1 billion (TechCrunch, Nov 2019)