Elon Musk’s Neuralink appears to be what I’ve always suspected it would be: a slapdash company where progress seems to take a higher priority than saftey. As a neurologist who has clinical trial expertise and experience with neuromodulation devices, I don’t see this company getting FDA approval anytime soon.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/neuralink-musk-fda/
@OldHound what do you think of the mission though? Higher spatial resolution than EEG, higher temporal resolution than fMRI, and on free-moving animals is, I think, their goal. For neuroscience as a field, I've understood the central problems to require a model of a system of systems to integrate the massive amounts of data we already have. I'm not sure how much Neuralink helps there, though being able to get the devices on free-moving animals seems useful.
For technology, Neuralink could be useful in some prosthetics for paralyzed folks, right?
@2ck Why would you think that any other companies aren’t working on this “mission”? If anything, Musk is a late entrant on all of this and I’d take a lot of his claims with a grain of salt (he tends to overhype). His tendency to flagrantly ignore regulations, particularly in the area of human research, is extremely concerning. There’s a history as to why those regulations are in place (and I should add, the bar is lower for device manufacturers).
@OldHound Thanks for your response. I don't think other companies aren't developing similar devices. I've read about a few over the years. I'm looking forward to seeing more from Synchron, for instance since they got approved for clinical trials.
I think that higher electrode density may or may not be major factor in how effective future devices are. I was hoping you could share your thoughts since you have industry experience.
