How to read and stimulate your brain becomes accessible to everyone… for better or for worse

2024-10-28 17:00:00

“Neurotechnology”. The term is still absent in the Larousse dictionary, but these approaches have already begun to revolutionize medicine. Since mid-October, patients with severe, drug-resistant and inoperable epilepsy in Marseille have been wearing an electrode cap five days a week for twenty minutes. These read the electroencephalogram (EEG) data and send an electric current of 2 milliamps. The goal of this neuromodulation, called “transcranial direct current,” is to reduce the frequency of seizures.

Seventy patients from seven French cities will participate in this therapeutic study funded by the European Union and conceived by the neurologist Fabrice Bartolomei (CHU la Timone, in Marseille) and the biomathematician Fabrice Wendling (Inserm, Rennes).

In the United States, the recruitment of 100 depressed and extremely treatment-resistant people capable of receiving a deep brain implant under local anesthesia is starting in 20 centers. The goal is to electrically stimulate, at high frequency, the area of ​​the brain identified as dysfunctional. This randomized study called “Transcend”, launched by the world number three in the field of brain implants, Abbott, is based on the work of Helen Mayberg, a pioneer of this approach in Toronto (Canada).

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In May, during the United Nations AI for Good Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, the X account of the French start-up Inclusive Brains sent a message intended for the UN account and that of Emmanuel Macron. The sender, present in the room, was wearing a helmet padded with electrodes: the electrical waves of the EEG, generated by his thoughts, as well as his eye movements were decoded by a generative artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, which allowed the message to be sent be sent to the social network.

The French president responded : “First tweet in history written and published by thought! (…) French pride! » This message « [nous] it has caused arguments with Elon Musk, who claimed the crown with his company Neuralink in Marchexplains neuroscientist Olivier Oullier, co-founder of Inclusive Brains. But the person had undergone surgery and had an implant. Our experiment was carried out using electrodes placed on the scalp.”. The start-up mainly targets this tool for people with disabilities.

Heal or repair bodies

From 2017 to 2021, Olivier Oullier led, with a very different purpose, the Californian company Emotiv, number one in the world in wearable objects for recording brain activity. For less than 500 euros it sells audio headphones, headsets with microphones and headbands to analyze the emotions of potential consumers – with a neuromarketing objective – or measure levels of stress and attention at work, in particular for learning and productivity purposes. Emotiv announces “800,000 uses” which allowed him to collect more than “100 million minutes of EEG data” in 140 countries.