Revolutionizing Health Care Through Brain Implants

            Brain chip implants are an innovation that is helping improve the lives of people. Using these brain chips is life-changing for individuals with health problems that are caused by damage to an area of the brain that hinders basic bodily functions. In an article published by Liam Drew titled The Brain-Reading Devices Helping Paralyzed People to Move, Talk, and Touch, Drew discusses the scientific and technological revolution of implanting chips in the human brain. This is a phenomenon that is currently being worked on by companies like Neuralink and BCI (brain-computer interface). He states, “one approach is to implant electrodes that directly stimulate the muscles of person’s limbs and have the BCI directly control these” (Drew). In this scenario, Drew believes that a solution for people with paralysis is to implant the BCI chip to revive the movement in the individual via assistive neurotechnology. BCI works by implanting grids of electrodes into an area of the brain that needs to be stimulated. The electrodes then record neurons in the brain and a computer uses algorithms to decode the action that needs to be stimulated. This is important because this technology has the potential to cure neurodegenerative diseases through neural engineering. 

In the article, “Somatic inhibition by microscopic magnetic stimulation”, Hui Ye believes that through electromagnetic induction, a miniature-sized magnetic coil can potentially give ganglion neurons focal stimulation. Dr.Ye examined Aplysia californica (marine mollusk) where they received a high-frequency stimulus to the ganglion cell. By doing this, Dr.Ye found that the miniature-sized coil could completely inhibit soma activity in the neurons of Aplysia. Dr.Ye also found that the coil was able to prevent functional output from targeted neurons through somatic inhibition. The results showed that ganglion sheath provides “minimal alteration to the magnetically-induced electrical field”. The miniature coil was able to induce a large electric field in a single neuron. This study is important because it provides results that may further improve the miniature coil technology for neural control in research. 

           The research conducted by Dr.Ye demonstrates that technology that stimulates areas of the brain can improve bodily functions. This is important because it can help save lives but requires further research and development. Both articles show the positive sides of neurotechnology but do not consider the possible ethical issues. For example, neurotechnology can be abused for an individual’s selfish needs such as enhancing human abilities. Someone with an implant can improve their vision or even memorization which leads to unfair advantages in society. Many ethical questions must be asked, and limitations should be set on this technology to ensure society will be using neurotechnology righteously.