Each company in the BCI field has slightly different ideas and methods for reading and processing human brain signals.
Synchron, which is just finishing a followup of its 10th patient, who has been living with its device for 12 months, and preparing for a larger clinical trial, reads brain signals by inserting a stent into the jugular vein that can read brain signals.
The benefit of the stent is that it can be inserted with a minimally invasive procedure. The downside is that, because the stent is not inserted directly into the brain, it doesn’t receive as many brain signals, giving patients less control over computers.
Precision Neuroscience, which is just beginning the FDA process, has a different method. It plans to make a tiny slit in the skull and slide an extremely thin set of electrodes in. It has also been testing its device in a novel way, recruiting brain surgery patients to temporarily test the products during their procedures. Precision then runs a series of tests on the patients, gathering invaluable data that can also help doctors performing the surgery.
Blackrock Neurotech, founded in 2008, has been testing implants for longer than any of its competitors and may be the first to achieve an FDA-approved device. The company’s devices are placed directly on the brain, giving patients high fidelity control. However, the devices have often lasted only a few years, in part due to scar tissue building up around the sensor, which degrades signals.
Neuralink’s device works differently. The sensors that collect brain data are fibers thinner than a human hair. The company developed a surgical robot to insert the sensors into the motor cortex. The device can then wirelessly beam the signal to a computer, whereas devices like Blackrock’s use a cable.
There are other startups, some toiling away in stealth mode. Neuralink’s co-founder and first president, Max Hodak, left in 2021 to launch his own computer-brain interface company called Science.