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Are Brain–Computer Interfaces Feasible With Integrated Photonic Chips?

The present paper examines the viability of a radically novel idea for brain–computer interface (BCI), which could lead to novel technological, experimental, and clinical applications. BCIs are computer-based systems that enable either one-way or two-way communication between a living brain and an e...

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Autores principales: Salari, Vahid, Rodrigues, Serafim, Saglamyurek, Erhan, Simon, Christoph, Oblak, Daniel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8777191/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35069099
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.780344
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author Salari, Vahid
Rodrigues, Serafim
Saglamyurek, Erhan
Simon, Christoph
Oblak, Daniel
author_facet Salari, Vahid
Rodrigues, Serafim
Saglamyurek, Erhan
Simon, Christoph
Oblak, Daniel
author_sort Salari, Vahid
collection PubMed
description The present paper examines the viability of a radically novel idea for brain–computer interface (BCI), which could lead to novel technological, experimental, and clinical applications. BCIs are computer-based systems that enable either one-way or two-way communication between a living brain and an external machine. BCIs read-out brain signals and transduce them into task commands, which are performed by a machine. In closed loop, the machine can stimulate the brain with appropriate signals. In recent years, it has been shown that there is some ultraweak light emission from neurons within or close to the visible and near-infrared parts of the optical spectrum. Such ultraweak photon emission (UPE) reflects the cellular (and body) oxidative status, and compelling pieces of evidence are beginning to emerge that UPE may well play an informational role in neuronal functions. In fact, several experiments point to a direct correlation between UPE intensity and neural activity, oxidative reactions, EEG activity, cerebral blood flow, cerebral energy metabolism, and release of glutamate. Therefore, we propose a novel skull implant BCI that uses UPE. We suggest that a photonic integrated chip installed on the interior surface of the skull may enable a new form of extraction of the relevant features from the UPE signals. In the current technology landscape, photonic technologies are advancing rapidly and poised to overtake many electrical technologies, due to their unique advantages, such as miniaturization, high speed, low thermal effects, and large integration capacity that allow for high yield, volume manufacturing, and lower cost. For our proposed BCI, we are making some very major conjectures, which need to be experimentally verified, and therefore we discuss the controversial parts, feasibility of technology and limitations, and potential impact of this envisaged technology if successfully implemented in the future.
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spelling pubmed-87771912022-01-22 Are Brain–Computer Interfaces Feasible With Integrated Photonic Chips? Salari, Vahid Rodrigues, Serafim Saglamyurek, Erhan Simon, Christoph Oblak, Daniel Front Neurosci Neuroscience The present paper examines the viability of a radically novel idea for brain–computer interface (BCI), which could lead to novel technological, experimental, and clinical applications. BCIs are computer-based systems that enable either one-way or two-way communication between a living brain and an external machine. BCIs read-out brain signals and transduce them into task commands, which are performed by a machine. In closed loop, the machine can stimulate the brain with appropriate signals. In recent years, it has been shown that there is some ultraweak light emission from neurons within or close to the visible and near-infrared parts of the optical spectrum. Such ultraweak photon emission (UPE) reflects the cellular (and body) oxidative status, and compelling pieces of evidence are beginning to emerge that UPE may well play an informational role in neuronal functions. In fact, several experiments point to a direct correlation between UPE intensity and neural activity, oxidative reactions, EEG activity, cerebral blood flow, cerebral energy metabolism, and release of glutamate. Therefore, we propose a novel skull implant BCI that uses UPE. We suggest that a photonic integrated chip installed on the interior surface of the skull may enable a new form of extraction of the relevant features from the UPE signals. In the current technology landscape, photonic technologies are advancing rapidly and poised to overtake many electrical technologies, due to their unique advantages, such as miniaturization, high speed, low thermal effects, and large integration capacity that allow for high yield, volume manufacturing, and lower cost. For our proposed BCI, we are making some very major conjectures, which need to be experimentally verified, and therefore we discuss the controversial parts, feasibility of technology and limitations, and potential impact of this envisaged technology if successfully implemented in the future. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-01-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8777191/ /pubmed/35069099 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.780344 Text en Copyright © 2022 Salari, Rodrigues, Saglamyurek, Simon and Oblak. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Salari, Vahid
Rodrigues, Serafim
Saglamyurek, Erhan
Simon, Christoph
Oblak, Daniel
Are Brain–Computer Interfaces Feasible With Integrated Photonic Chips?
title Are Brain–Computer Interfaces Feasible With Integrated Photonic Chips?
title_full Are Brain–Computer Interfaces Feasible With Integrated Photonic Chips?
title_fullStr Are Brain–Computer Interfaces Feasible With Integrated Photonic Chips?
title_full_unstemmed Are Brain–Computer Interfaces Feasible With Integrated Photonic Chips?
title_short Are Brain–Computer Interfaces Feasible With Integrated Photonic Chips?
title_sort are brain–computer interfaces feasible with integrated photonic chips?
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8777191/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35069099
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.780344
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