The brain chip of conspiracy theories

If you think brain chips are a thing of conspiracy theories, think again. Ongoing research on microchips has led to the bionic hybrid neuro chip; a brain implant that can record brain function for up to a month at 15x the resolution of traditional chips. 

What's new about this chip?

Traditional microchips either record at a high resolution or record for long periods of time. A previously released article on Quantumrun also mentions a chip that uses a soft polymer mesh to reduce cell damage caused by the chip recording for longer time periods.

This new “bionic hybrid neuro chip” uses “nano edges” that enables it to both record for a longer time period and have high quality footage. According to Dr. Naweed Syed, one of the authors and scientific director at the University of Calgary, the chip can also assimilate “what Mother Nature does when it puts networks of brain cells together” so that brain cells grow on it thinking it’s part of the crew.

What will it do?

The researchers at the University of Calgary explain how this neuro chip can come with a cochlear implant for people with epilepsy. The implant can dial their phone to let the patient know a seizure is coming. It can then give the patient advice such as ‘sit down’ and ‘don’t drive.’ The software can also dial 911 while turning on the GPS locator on the patient’s phone so that paramedics can locate the patient.

Pierre Wijdenes, the paper’s first author, also explains how researchers can make personalized medication for patients suffering from seizures by testing different compounds on the brain tissue where seizures occur. They can then use the information gathered from the neuro chip to figure out which compounds work best.