BrainQ aims to cure stroke and spinal cord injuries through mind-reader tech

Way in the future. 

BrainQ aims to cure stroke and spinal cord injuries through mind-reader tech

Sarah Buhr,TechCrunch 1 hour 12 minutes ago

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Israel-based BrainQ is a new neurotech startup hoping to take on brain-computer interface (BCI) companies like Braintree founder Bryan Johnson's Kernel and Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk's Neuralink.
It's not clear yet what Musk's startup intends to do with the computer chips it plans to put in our heads, but Johnson's startup says it is focused on developing "technologies to understand and treat neurological diseases in new and exciting ways."
Whatever sector each company goes for, both plan to insert chips in our brains to connect us to computers -- the consequences of which could have dramatic effects on human memory, intelligence, communication and many other areas that could rocket humanity forward, should they work out.
But it's early days in this industry, including for BrainQ, which plans to use a non-surgically embedded EEG machine instead to gather data and help improve outcomes for stroke and spinal cord patients.
Aside from the brain implant options, BrainQ faces quite a bit of competition in this area. EEG machines are nothing new, not even in the spinal cord injury space. Missouri-based NeuroLutions is working on similar EEG type technology to improve and restore function to paralytics. NeuroPace, a Kleiner-funded startup, is focused on seizures rather than stroke and spinal cord injuries, but is based on the same idea.

BrainQ admits it is also a couple years out from being fully operational here. It still needs to get through clinical human trials and gain Food and Drug Administration approval to sell its services in the U.S.
So far, the company is in the process of conducting two human clinical trials for stroke patients in Israel and a spokesperson for the company, Assaf Lifshitz, says BrainQ will likely try to go to other markets first while waiting on the FDA. BrainQ tells TechCrunch it hopes to be available in the U.S. market by 2020.

Alzheimer's research is another area TechCrunch was told the company wants to get into soon, and possibly children's syndromes, as well.
There are a lot of different areas the company could go into with this type of tech but it's probably safest to bet on a few narrow areas in the beginning, as there is already so much competition in the space in just the U.S. For instance, NeuruLutions' Ipsihand device is already connecting stroke patients' brains to a moveable brace they can control with thought and help them move certain body parts again.

And, while Lifshitz believes BrainQ is at least ahead of the market as far as Kernel and Neuralink go, that's too easy of a comparison to make. EEG is a low-risk entry toward a BCI device gaining FDA approval. All the company needs to show, as many of these companies are either on their way to proving or have proved already, is that the device works. That is far from the same thing as a chip surgically inserted into your head.

BrainQ will continue to forge ahead, of course. Google's Launchpad Studio chose to work with the startup this last fall, based on what it thought was some interesting machine learning tech. The company also has raised about $3.5 million to date from various Israeli investors and angels, and presented previous clinical findings to the World Congress of Neuro Rehabilitation.

• This article originally appeared on TechCrunch.

Incredible mind-reading device could help stroke patients regain the use of their hands by strengthening the neurons in their brain

Makes the assumption that your motor cortex is still viable for the needed movements. Mine is mostly dead. Not even tested in stroke survivors. Worthless.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5270797/Incredible-mind-reading-device-help-stroke-patients.html

• Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability in both the US and the UK 
• About half of all stroke survivors are left with restricted movement in one hand
• A new tool can help patients using brain signals and a robotic exoskeleton
• The device sends signals into the brain while moving a paralysed hand to restore connections between the two

By Harry Pettit For Mailonline

Published: 13:05 EST, 15 January 2018 | Updated: 13:37 EST, 15 January 2018

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An incredible mind-reading device could help sufferers of serious strokes regain the use of their hands.

Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability in both the US and the UK, with about half of all survivors left with severely restricted movement in one hand.

A new machine sends signals into a patient's head while moving their paralysed hand with a robotic exoskeleton to strengthen lost connections between brain cells.

Scroll down for video

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An incredible mind-reading device could help sufferers of serious strokes regain the use of paralysed hands. The machine (pictured) sends signals into a patient's head while moving the affected hand to strengthen lost connections between brain cells

WHAT IS A STROKE?

A stroke is a brain attack similar to a heart attack, and is mostly caused by a blockage of a blood vessel to part of the brain. 

The sooner a suspected stroke patient is seen by a doctor, a diagnosis made and treatment started, the greater the likelihood of recovery.

Stroke is a leading cause of disability in the UK, where there are more than 100,000 cases each year.

In the US, stroke is the number one cause of serious, long-term disability, with around 800,000 cases a year.

About half of all stroke survivors will never be able to use their affected hand for activities of daily living again.

Current therapy is based on muscular strength training via specialised rehabilitation and physiotherapy sessions.

The researchers, from the University of Tübingen in southwest Germany, say their device is a new way to strengthen brain networks damaged during a stroke.

Their new technique asks patients to imagine opening and closing their hand without making any movement.

The device detects electrical activity in the brain and causes the hand to open and close in response.

Experts also use a magnetic pulse to stimulate a part of the brain associated with hand movement during the treatment.

The treatment boosts the number of connections or 'pathways' between the brain and spinal cord, the researchers claim.

Lead researcher Professor Alireza Gharabaghi told MailOnline: 'This combined intervention recruits additional pathways from the brain to the hand which were not active before.'

To test if their system works, the team evaluated 27 participants - none of whom had suffered a stroke - as they used the device.

The strength of brain connections linked to hand movement were measured before and after the experiments via changes in muscle electrical pulses.

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Stroke is a leading cause of disability in the UK, with about half of the country's 1.2 million stroke survivors left with severely restricted movement in one hand. Pictured is the rehabilitation machine used in the new study

HOW IT WORKS 

The device strengthens brain connections lost during a stroke.

It promotes the building of new connections by asking users to imagine they are opening and closing their hand.

As they do this, the machine passively opens and closes their hand in time with signals sent out from their brain.

The therapy boosts brain plasticity and so promotes the natural rebuilding of damaged brain circuitry.

The team found that the strength of pulses sent from the brain to the hand increased after their therapy.

The researchers demonstrate that stimulating the hand area of the motor cortex at the same time, but not after, the robotic device initiated hand movement increased the strength of the neural signal.

This was most likely by harnessing the processing power of additional neurons in the spine, they said.

The signal decreased when participants were not required to imagine moving their hand.

'Delivering brain stimulation and robotic motor feedback simultaneously during rehabilitation may therefore be beneficial for patients who have lost voluntary muscle control,' the researchers wrote in their paper.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5270797/Incredible-mind-reading-device-help-stroke-patients.html#ixzz56a4mKzyy
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Scientists create device capable of reading your mind

I can't imagine this going much farther if it requires cutting a hole in the skull and then placing electrodes on the brain surface or cortex.

http://www.thestatecolumn.com/science/scientists-create-device-capable-of-reading-your-mind/#ixzz1lA4MBUb9
t seems U.S. scientists now have the ability to read your mind.

A new device reportedly has the ability to read your mind by analyzing your brain waves, according to study published by scientists from four universities. The study, conducted by researchers at U.C. Berkeley, U.C. San Francisco, University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins University, was published in the January 31 edition of the journal PLoS Biology.

“This is huge for patients who have damage to their speech mechanisms because of a stroke or Lou Gehrig’s disease and can’t speak,” said University of California Berkeley professor and study co-author Robert Knight. “If you could eventually reconstruct imagined conversations from brain activity, thousands of people could benefit.”

The device, which remains in the early stages of development, could ultimately allow scientists to study how people think and interpret information, possibly opening up a new era of medicine. Scientists working on the project said the results of the experiment could ultimately yield new insight regarding a number of diseases, including people who have damage to their speech mechanisms because of a stroke or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The experiment reportedly allowed scientist to decipher the electrical signals in an individual’s brain as they listen to words or conversation. Following analysis of these signals, the team of neurologists were then able to use them to recreate the imagined speech of the same person.

Neurosurgeons noted that the experiment was relatively invasive. The team noted that they cut a hole in the skull and then safely place electrodes on the brain surface or cortex – in this case, up to 256 electrodes covering the temporal lobe – to record activity over a period of a week to pinpoint the seizures. For this study, 15 neurosurgical patients volunteered to participate.”

The team noted that the “mind reading” device remains in the early stages of development. Any practical use of the device would require electrodes to be placed beneath the skull onto the brain itself, due to the fact that no sensors exist which could detect the tiny patterns of electrical activity non-invasively. Future prosthetic devices could eventually either synthesize the actual sound a person is thinking, or just write out the words with a type of interface device, according to scientists.