Mind-reading Computers – Phil Wang, Anne Vanhoestenberghe and Luke Bashford

Introduction

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1:39If you're a QuickBooks customer looking to grow your business without the growing pains, you need the Intuit ERP. Upgrade to Intuit Enterprise Suite in a matter of hours. It's the AI-native ERP from the makers of QuickBooks. Learn more at intuit.com slash ERP. Hello. On my right is Robin Ince. And on my left is Brian Cox. Though obviously it's the other way round for those of you listening on the radio. If you are looking directly at the radio. Anyway, so for those of you who prefer to imagine, we present the show from the bunk bed we live in in Broadcasting House.

2:10I'm on the bottom bunk and Brian is on the top bunk. I did actually once have the top bunk, but due to the weight that I pushed down the mattress due to the size of my backside, Brian was very worried that the universe was suddenly expanding towards him and was quite unable to sleep. Just to say, because I was a little bit late arriving, I didn't edit that bit of Robin's scripts. I would have taken that out. It's true though, isn't it? No, because then people think we like the Morecambe and White. No, the bunk beds, not side by side, Brian. You were fine. There's a ladder between us, both metaphorically and physical.

Brain Computer Interface

2:40Anyway, this is the infinite monkey case. That's the longest period of time it's taken to get to that bit. So today we're discussing the new science of Brian computer interfaces. What is Brian computer interface? What new possibilities will these technologies create for human Brians? Can Brian have a computer implanted into his brain? And if so, would we do it now and see what happens? Because I've got a chisel and I've got some Dettol. And apparently that is all you need to do this experiment. There's obviously a bit of comedic license there in Robin's introduction. But it is actually remarkably correct, up to a slight rearrangement of the letters and the words.

3:15It is actually genuinely written here, right? It was written in the notes that I was saying that today we were looking at Brian computer interface. That was in the notes. But it should say brain computer interface. Nevertheless, we can still use the Dettol and chisel. So, we are joined today by a professor of active implantable medical devices. A lecturer and researcher into brain computer interfaces that investigate the neural mechanisms underlying human sensory motor and cognitive function.

3:48And a comedian. And they are. My name is Dr. Luke Ashford. I am a lecturer in neuroscience and neurotechnology at Newcastle University. And the brain computer interface that would have the biggest impact on my life is one that I could offer to anyone who had a neurological problem, who came into the clinic, who came into the lab, and who could walk out with the problem that they were having resolved. My name is Anne van Hostenberg. I'm a professor of active implantable medical device technology at King's College London.

4:19And the brain computer interface that would the most influence my life would be one that would enable people who are not able to be part of the conversation, they can't communicate and we don't hear them, to become part of the conversation. I'm Phil Wang. I'm a comedian and slob. And the brain computer interface that would most improve my life is a bionic arm that will throw a ball in the direction I want it to go. Because currently my actual arm is apparently a ball direction randomizer.

4:53And this is our panel.

4:56Phil, I've got to pick you up on that first of all. Are you someone who, when you walk through the park, decides to leave because you see people playing a ball game and go, if that comes anywhere near me, it's a disaster. And the social embarrassment is so great. And that is why you became a comedian. Yeah, to stay away from the balls. I've thrown balls literally perpendicular to the way I wanted them to go. I understand the science behind it. I can't make the magic happen. Anyway, welcome to today's episode of In the Psychiatrist's Chair.

Definition Discussion

5:23Luke, could we start with a definition? So we've heard the term several times now, brain computer interface. What is that? So it's a device that is comprised of three main components. There is a part of it which is actually sort of contacting the brain. This part records the brain signal. Then that signal is taken to some sort of computer that processes that signal. And then that goes to the final part of this chain, which is the effector, which is whatever it is that someone is going to use or control, be it a robotic arm, be it a computer on a screen or some other device.

5:57And Anne, it sounds quite futuristic, I suppose, doesn't it? It sounds rather science fiction. But historically, there's a long history of such devices. There's a long history of trying to interact with the nervous system. I don't think we initially imagined them as being brain computer interfaces, but the concept of trying to modify the way people move using electricity is not new. Research groups creating devices back in the 60s and even before. Really good examples are cochlear implants, pacemakers as well. We've seen them develop.

6:28No, they are something that you are completely familiar with. You don't see them as sci-fi. But the technology that is used is similar to what we're talking about today in brain computer interfaces. So we in the UK have a long history within research and industry of creating these devices. So what was that turning point that allowed this kind of new adventure in terms of the brain computer interface to begin? For brain computer interfaces, it's miniaturization, definitely. You usually have a sort of a moment when there is a technology that's created, like we've got electricity, how can we use it?

6:59And then people will find medical applications amongst a lot of other applications. And then the engineers run behind the idea of the medical visionaries, trying to give them the engineering that they need, which is usually make everything smaller. And nothing's more true than brain computer interface. Make it smaller and then make it last longer. You don't want to drop your mobile phone in water and then just pick it up and just go, it's dead. And we're trying to put things in the brain, which is wet and aggressive. It tries to destroy everything you put in it. That's an incredible image, the idea that you've got a BCI in your head

7:30and then you accidentally put your head in the toilet and then go, oh, I better just put my head in a bucket of rice for a while. Well, I've heard that works. I now merely have an image of rice-headed humans. I suppose the science fiction image is literally implanting things through your skull into your brain. Which in certain cases is what happens, but there are a variety of devices. I mean, to this point of miniaturisation, when we were performing these studies 10, 15, 20 years ago, you would go into a room and you would look like the road crew for a touring band

8:03with just boxes and boxes and racks of everything. And you would need that in order to do now what we can do with a device, you know, the size of a 10p piece and all of the computing that you need is actually embedded into it. So the fundamental signal that drives these devices is the individual firing of individual brain cells. So implanted devices that go through into the brain and sit next to these cells physically, they record the activity of these individual units. From that most implanted version, you can sort of abstract out all the way through to a device that sits purely on the scalp of the head

8:40and records the electrical activity of whole populations of cells, but non-invasively from the surface of the brain. In between then, you have electrodes that rest on the brain's surface but don't actually penetrate it. You have electrodes that sit under the scalp but above the skull. And this is just the devices that record the electrical activity. You can then have devices that interact, you know, via sound or light. So, Phil, which one would you choose just at the moment? We said, well, you can have either the one where the things are actually stuck into your brain

9:12or the one where it just kind of picks up some stuff. I've been perusing the options over the last five seconds and I don't know, I'm liking the ones that don't require a hole in my skull. I think the one that I just put on the top maybe. It depends what performance you want from it. So at the moment, the most implanted, those that are closest to the cells, will give you the most performance. So the fine resolution control that you might have seen or that is achievable, that comes from the most implanted. What does performance mean? Like graphics quality?

9:42Not quite. It means, for example, if you're controlling a device, the precision with which you can control it. So the amount of degrees of freedom, the amount of manipulation that you have, the speed that you can do it. Sure. This comes from the most implanted devices. The least implanted devices, you can maybe control one or two or three things. So a left, a right, an up, a down, a click. The amount of physical coordination I have at this point, I might as well just have it on the top of my skull, to be honest. I don't think, I'm working at pre-resolution. You might need the implanted version for your throwing arm.

10:13Yeah, definitely. Is it because you're one of those people? Because I think I would, if I've got like a hole in my tooth, I can't stop fiddle-faddling around with it until I've broken the tooth. So if I had a hole in my head, I know that I shouldn't stick my finger in and kind of wobble it all around, but I would. Yeah, you'd start stroking it. Do people end up stroking it? Oh, that stops me. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Yeah, no, that kind of thing. It'd be great if you could go to sleep by just pressing a button in the top of your head at night. I find going to sleep really hard. The only problem then is who turns the button back on again?

10:45There's a flaw in the plan, yeah. So, Anne, what is this? Because I remember once having that, I think it was EEG, but watching the way that my brain was reacting to different pieces of music. I went to, I forget where it was now, and I did somewhere near Putney. And so what can we do somewhere near Putney? Literally, I met a guy, he said, can I put some electrodes on your head? And you know me, I'm very much a yes person. So it wasn't a university or a research lab? No, it was. Someone's house. Do you know what? It was this incredible research institute,

11:16which was trying to work out different ways. It was a long, long time ago, and I'm 56. I can't remember everything. It was just someone's house. I'm just imagining a guy in a van in Putney saying, hey, come and we can do it. I wish it was their house. It was a well.

11:32But so, for instance, without actually any form of invasive, so without even, like, say, going under the skin, in what ways might we be able to change behaviour? The skull, unfortunately, sort of disrupts almost all of the signals that you would use to record from the brain precisely. Which is probably the point of the skull, isn't it? Which is probably the point of the skull, yes, to protect your brain, you know, from all kinds of things, but, you know, these devices too. So there, I mean, you can influence activity,

12:03you can influence movements, you can influence sort of certain behaviours with these kinds of non-invasive stimulations, and that's quite well established, even in clinical standard of care. Can I ask you about the magnet thing? Because I've had that done. I've had it to the right side of, that's the left side of my brain, isn't it, to the motor region there, and I had a magnetic thing to stop me talking. Brian used it. And, no, it was... It's not bloody working. Yes, I'm sure. You arrived late and I'd cut the wires.

12:28But I remember... And then they did another little movement where it was another part of the motor region, so it meant that I had what I would consider to be involuntary actions in my hand. So moving that magnet around the top of the head, you know, what other things might occur as we move from, say, the left-hand side where the motor region is, what other things can be manipulated with a magnetic force? In principle, you can manipulate any population that is the focus of that stimulation. The thing is that there are certain populations, for example, of cells in the motor cortex that directly control the outputs of your muscles.

13:01So in that case, you would see exactly these involuntary movements that you saw. Some are sort of more subtle. So, for example, if you move forwards into something like the prefrontal cortex, this is more associated with cognitive function. So actually, if you were being stimulated in that region, you may not necessarily notice anything unless you were engaged in a very particular cognitive task. Something would be happening, but it wouldn't be as obvious visibly as a twitch. So these implants, they can allow you to control machines, but information can also go the other way around? It can be used to control your movements?

13:33Yes. The sort of technical term for that is an open loop versus a closed loop device. So an open loop device is one that records the brain activity, monitors it, models it, and then outputs it into something. The closed loop version of a brain computer interface is that then whatever you're using, be it a computer or a robot arm, when you touch something, will trigger an impulse back to your brain that will allow you to feel or sense what you have just been doing. So a stimulation in sensory cortex, after you've made a movement,

14:04you will feel the consequences of that. And you build these devices. So could you give us a sense of what they are? What are they made out of? What do they look like? There is a range of them, depending on which one you're looking at. When Luke brought one, so I'll try to describe, but what you've got is long threads at the end of which you're going to have the electrode arrays. So each of these little square, which for everybody else's interest is much smaller than the nail of my little finger, are containing several hundreds of electrodes. So these are what's been pushed

14:34into the region of your brain that you're trying to listen to. And then what nobody realizes is that on this type of device, there's this. This is the connector to connect to the cable. It's about the size of the top phalange of my little finger. And this sticks out. The thing as a whole looks like C-3PO's Bolo time. And it's got a thread on it. And what you do is you thread a cable that's going to be outside, and that's what's connected to your computer. And this is never removed. So for anybody who's participated in a study

15:06where they've had one of these implanted, of this type of device, they will have the electrode array, the thread, and then the interconnection. Now, more modern devices that aren't as able to record as many electrodes, so they don't have the same precision of information, this one is really a neuroscience device, but some of the ones that are more targeting a clinical application, less precise, fewer electrodes. But instead of having a connector like that, they're implanted electronics, so they then become completely hidden under the skin.

15:37So it is essentially some wires, what, about five centimeters long or so, and then a data port. And so you connect the wires into the brain, the data port's on the outside, you read the data out. Exactly. And the advantage of these types of wired devices, so connected via cable, as Anne was saying, is that here you have access to the full bandwidth of brain activity. We record at sort of 30 kilohertz, which is a sort of a sampling rate that's fast enough that you can capture

16:09the individual activity of individual brain cells. So with this kind of device, you can record all of that raw signal, and then you can record sort of the summed electrical activity from that population as well. This is called the local field potential. So if an individual cell is one cell that fires, the local field potential represents the summed activity of all of the tens, hundreds, thousands of cells in that population. And then that is fed out through this device. The problem is that it leaves this port that comes through the skin, and that, in principle, could be a source of infection.

16:40When you implant, though, all of the electronics, all of that processing, because you don't have the cabled connection, has to happen on the device, which there are limits to the amount of battery that that takes, there's the limits to the amount of heat that those computations generate. So you get out what you need for the application, but you don't get out the full brain activity that you might want for a scientific question. Could you not recharge yourself every night with a little USB port in the back of your head? I mean, you do. You have devices like a clear implant that don't have a battery implanted. You only use them with an external battery,

17:12and then the power is transferred like your toothbrush charger. So you sort of have power transferred directly. But for brain-computer interfaces, if you think about something that has to work 24-7, at what point in your life or in your everyday activity would you say, oh, it stopped working. Everything I was doing that I was unable to do, I can't do anymore because I need to go recharge or my battery is no longer working. So they take different approaches, compromises on what they're doing. In terms of the engineering challenges, because this is a medical device that, as you said, it's implanted,

17:45there are infection control and so on. So how much of a constraint is that on the engineering that you're building something that goes inside the brain? I mean, it's terrible, but it's also my career, so I can't complain about it. But it's really challenging. As I was describing earlier, if you drop your phone in water, it will stop working. We're making devices that are more powerful than your phone or trying to, that are hopefully going to last a lot longer than your phone. We're talking decades long. And that are smaller, that have to resist shocks and bumps

18:15and whatever you do to your head can't stop working because somebody threw a ball at you and it landed on your head. And all this, I mean, the body is not just wet. It's really, really apt at destroying anything that invades it. In fact, it's what it does best. And so we're, as I said, yeah, it's a real challenge. In terms of the first versions of this, you know, we're talking about challenge. I mean, these tiny little things that you mentioned, smaller than your fingernails, I think to me, I would describe them as being the size I imagine a baby ladybird might be. And you've got these tiny,

18:46you know, when that is placed inside human tissue, what were the early failures? What are the things which we went, thought that would work, that doesn't work, the invasive nature of this, the body has a way of dealing with it. So what happens when you implant a device into the brain tissue is that your brain responds much like the rest of your body does to this foreign object by forming a scar. So a glial scar around each of these electrodes that goes in.

19:16And this glial scar that sort of forms and kind of encapsulates the device prevents you from being able to record the neurons that you're there to record. So over time, what you find is the very first sort of moment that you implant this and you switch it on, you'll look at it and across all of these different channels, you'll see hundreds and hundreds of very well-defined neurons firing and you can see the sort of the shape of each of these firings. Over time, you start to lose those and so that is because of things like the glial scar forming around the device.

19:47It's also to do with very small movements so you're never really recording the same cells day to day because the brain moves a lot so you get very subtle changes in which cells you record from. You can compensate for that from recording from the population but you can also then kind of compensate for all of this with smarter materials. Yeah. What you described as a baby ladybird, it's also got a hundred legs. I don't know if you've in your vision of the ladybird you see the hundred legs. You can't see them with the naked eye. On these legs are tiny little hair I guess or points

20:17that are the area of recording so it's really very small and one of the things that was happening is the material at this area was deteriorating and there's been a huge amount of progress in improving the quality of this material so it stays stuck on there it doesn't get dissolved by the body it doesn't get so affected that it would delaminate or see other deterioration and it also has to keep conducting the electrical signal that it's recorded has to stay connected with the back end where you have your interconnection

20:48to your cable so each of these interconnections each of these interfaces are areas of fragility in some way we try to control the foreign body response the scarring in some other ways we try to make sure that nothing decomposes into the body so what are they actually made of what is the material that I'm holding here now as you said they look like tiny little legs or like a kind of tiny hairbrush whatever it is that's silicon that's the same as all of the chips that are in your phone all the electronics runs on integrated circuits on silicon

21:19what's the brain using to deteriorate like acid or is it just too juicy it's water it's water with salt mostly it's water with salt and some reactive oxygen species so the top layer of the silicon you have a few nanometers of a metal and so the first thing it will do it will corrode the metal and then it will start attacking the silicon itself right I love this brain acid image of yours does brain have acid I don't know I feel like I know nothing about the brain what can these

21:50do I love the way Brian's just trided straight over that he's at that moment of going I'm sorry even I know more about biology than that we're moving on what can these devices do today they can restore movement they can restore speech they can be used to restore sensation so you get the signal from the brain and then you re-inject it into the body if you have for example a high level spinal cord injury the brain activity that underlies all the behaviour that you attempt

22:21to do isn't affected by that injury it's preserved this is different for example if you have a stroke because that brain area is physically damaged and it might not function as it should but in for example a spinal cord injury the brain activity is doing everything that it normally would it's just that those signals can't pass the injury and they can't make their way to the muscles and you don't make any movements or behaviours so what these devices do is they're implanted we start to record the brain activity

22:52and we ask people who are involved in these studies to say okay attempt to do this certain thing imagine doing that and attempting or imagining to do something produces a very stereotyped brain activity that is very similar to actually doing it if you were really doing it and so what we do is to start to pair up all of the kind of stereotypical brain responses to their behaviours and once you've done this over thousands and thousands of different repetitions and trials you can build a very good model of okay

23:23a certain brain activity means that I'm attempting to move to the right and this particular pattern means I'm attempting to move to the left this might be because if I'm moving to the right a certain cell increases its firing rate you know compared to baseline and if I was moving to the left that same cell or even a different cell decreases its activity so once you've built this model you can track the brain activity in real time and as someone imagines doing something when you see that pattern you say ah with a certain confidence they're probably

23:54trying to move to the right and so the device would see that and then move to the right and then you know the individual knows that oh that's what I was trying to do ah so you're not um reinserting the signal into the muscles in the arm for example not in that type of brain computer interface so once you have a good stable recording device and then you have a good model what you restore is a control signal so if you control you know up down left right backwards and forwards however many degrees of freedom that you have

24:25you can then in principle plug that into whatever so if you plug it into a computer it looks like you're moving the computer around if you plug it into a powered wheelchair or a car you know you'll drive the car around if you were to attach it to electrodes that stimulate the muscle you can then stimulate muscle the problem is those electrodes are still quite a kind of a coarse thing and you lose that fine precision that you could get with a device one example of a team French Swiss team

24:55that have done just what you're describing Brian where they have one implant in the brain that records the activity as Luke has explained has the dictionary the mapping and then another implant on the level of the spinal cord below the level of the injury that can then activate or attempt to activate a person and with this combination of two devices each of which are relatively sizable but remarkable in the fact that they can talk to one another that's been demonstrated to provide some degree of control of a movement of a person

25:25who's otherwise not able to do it if you want to contribute to this so I'm looking at Phil here so let's say Phil just said I believe in this sign so much I would like to provide my brain my head as an experimental subject as your new lawyer I would like to say anything you say will lead to you I think that's what his expression is saying but it seems because it's an invasive or at least the electrode implanting is invasive

25:55is that always done on people who need it from a medical point of view or could Phil volunteer indeed can Brian volunteer me no I mean you couldn't volunteer for an invasive procedure it's not done on people so much on your brain everyone that has contributed to these studies so far or the implanted BCI studies so far have volunteered because they have had this sort of situation where they've

26:26had a paralysis so that's been the sort of the fundamental kind of inclusion criteria into these types of studies and actually I mean their contribution cannot be sort of you know understated it's been an enormous effort from them when we work with participants in the lab actually they join these studies for multiple years and they will do multiple hours every day with us you know they sort of become a part of the lab in a way that their contribution is so much of a commitment and they do all of this signing an

26:57informed consent which essentially says you know you probably shouldn't or you can't expect any benefit from this because we're developing the science but they have done it with the view that if not us you know we won't progress these technologies to a point where the generations behind us with these same injuries would have something and I think for that you know they really sort of earned all of our this is matt rogers from las culturistas with matt rogers and bowen yang this is bowen yang from las culturistas with matt rogers and bowen yang hey bowen

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30:00Zaxby's giant wraps they're no snack who's got the sauce Zaxby's Hi I'm Dr. Jake Goodman host of Beyond the Script the podcast where I sit down with pharmacists to answer the health questions