This episode features incredible neurotechnology news from around the world. A woman who is paralyzed is able to speak again, vision is restored to the blind, and scientists are able to decode music from people’s brains. Of course, we’ve got updates on the latest progress at Upward Arrow and positive environmental news.
Our first story is about the team at UCSF and UC Berkeley that have restored speech to a woman who was paralyzed by a stroke. Led by neurosurgeon Edward Chang from UCSF and Gopala Anumanchipalli and Kaylo Littlejohn from UC Berkeley, they are using electrodes in her brain to capture signals and machine learning or AI to decode the signals as speech. In addition, they are also connecting these speech sounds and other facial movements to a 3D avatar that represents the woman as she speaks through the computer connected to the electrodes implanted in her brain. Read the interview with the Berkeley team here: https://engineering.berkeley.edu/news/2023/08/novel-brain-implant-helps-paralyzed-woman-speak-using-a-digital-avatar/
Over in Spain, electrical signals are going in the other direction, from a digital camera through a computer into the brain of a woman who has been blind for the past 16 years. Using 96 electrodes, the team was able to restore some vision for this woman – such as large blocks or shapes, but not enough to safely navigate a room. The scientists reckon they would need 1,000 – 2,000 electrodes to restore sufficient vision. This is still an incredible breakthrough and shows the neuroplasticity of the brain taking these incoming signals and turning them into vision. This was done by Eduardo Fernández and others. Full paper here: https://www.jci.org/articles/view/151331/pdf
Back over in California, a neuroscientist was able to decode parts of the song ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ detected through neuroprosthetics in patients with epilepsy. These patients were undergoing surgery, and during this time, the song was played in the background. There was a total of 29 patients, and the electrical signals from their brand were deciphered using AI or machine learning. This is the work of Ludovic Bellier and his team at UC Berkeley. Read the article at Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/neuroscientists-re-create-pink-floyd-song-from-listeners-brain-activity/
At Upward Arrow, we are continuing to develop our smart necklace which detects biosignals from the neck. We are currently crunching the data and finding that the biosignals detected here are highly individualized. On the positive note, we are still seeing over 80% accuracy when we pool the data together. We look forward to making an announcement showcasing our work soon.
This episode’s positive environmental news is from the Allen Institute. They are using AI to improve the resolution of satellite imagery with their SATLAS program. This helps monitor human activity related to the environment including forest growth and renewable energy projects. By better tracking our impact on the environment we can ensure that overall impact is positive. Read more on their blog on Medium: https://blog.allenai.org/satlas-monitoring-the-planet-with-ai-and-satellite-imagery-f37b01b254e4?gi=2b6fced78898
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