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Not just humans: Musk’s brain chip takes animal experimentation to a new level

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Elon Musk’s Neuralink Brain Chip is primarily reported in connection with its use in humans. One expert, however, is convinced that the ambitious project can also take animal research to a new level and ensure better conditions for test subjects.

Neuralink brings significant improvements

On August 28, Elon Musk presented the progress of Neuralink – his company for the development of a brain-computer interface. An important part of the show: In order to prove that living things can survive the brain chip implantation process, several pigs were shown at the event with the small device inserted into their heads. Musk’s team was able to demonstrate that they were able to detect and record brain activity with an accuracy never before seen for such a device. The possibility of active stimulation has also been demonstrated in the early stages. In an interview with Business Insider, neuroscience professor Andrew Jackson at Newcastle University has now made a classification.

Neuralink’s ‘The Link’ was …
… until now only implanted in pigs

Jackson is initially excited about the progress the Musk Company has made with channels: “One of the things I think is important is that they dramatically increase the number of channels you can record,” he said. Expert. Currently available commercial products of this type are available on 100 channels, Neuralink is expected to offer 1000 channels here. From his point of view, another important advance makes the brain chip interesting for many areas: Neuralink can be placed in the skull as a compact device without any access from the flood plains: “This is of course very important for people. , but I think it is. It could also be very useful for people who work with animals at this time. ”

Use in the interest of animals

Jackson sees the use of new technology as a real advance, especially when it comes to animal welfare. Heretofore, systems in which cables are conducted through the skin to the outside have been used in such animal experiments. The risk of complications increases enormously: “From an animal welfare point of view, I think if you can experiment with something that does not have threads through the skin, it will improve animal welfare. “, explains the scientist. .

“You have to admit to Neuralink: they clearly paid attention to the ethics of animal experiments.” It can’t be fast enough for Jackson for Neuralink to deploy their system for animal testing: “I hope you take this approach and try to make this technology as widely available in the animal research world as possible. ”