Neuralink: Progress cannot be stopped, says scientist – 03/02/2024 – Science

Neuralink, Elon Musk’s company, has caused some concern because of its first clinical test with a brain implant that in theory allows a paralyzed patient to move a computer cursor with their mind.

Since the announcement of the surgery, which took place on January 28, there has been no news on the volunteer’s health status.

The lack of transparency raises ethical questions, but for many researchers, despite these problems, the initiative is positive. This is according to Alon Chen, neuroscientist and president of the Weizmann Institute in Israel.

“It’s an important concern, but for the most part, with every big leap in knowledge, we’re going to have ethical questions to resolve. Whether we should slow down or stop that, it’s my personal feeling that you can’t block progress and there will also be fantastic advantages with these developments”, said the neuroscientist in an interview with Sheet, during a quick visit to Brazil this week. “I think it’s quite exciting, actually, from a scientist’s point of view.”

For him, the ability to have electrodes interacting directly with the brain has uses that go well beyond Neuralink’s current experiments. “Today, for example, take Parkinson’s disease. There are similar concepts of implanting electrodes that can fire and activate neurons with a specific frequency and people wouldn’t have the associated tremors.”

Chen recognizes, however, that the ultimate goal of Musk’s company – developing an interface capable of effectively reading and transmitting complex thoughts – is still a long way off. “It’s something much more complicated, in a way it would be an extension of our brain. We still need to understand it much better before we can implement this.”

As leader of the prestigious Israeli research institute, Chen has a panoramic view of the work in various areas of science in which Weizmann operates – he passed through Brazil to discuss cooperation projects with local researchers, before heading to Chile, where he would visit the construction works of the GMT (English acronym for Giant Magalhães Telescope), a cutting-edge project in astronomy that also has Brazilian participation, through Fapesp (São Paulo State Research Support Foundation).

But his area of ​​specialization is neuroscience, in particular the study of stress and its effects on the brain – in which he sees great advances in recent times.

“We have learned a lot recently, especially about the link between our inability to control, regulate, our response to stress, whether traumatic stress or mild but chronic stress, and the emergence of various types of pathologies, and it’s not just mental health. It’s not just anxiety, depression or post-traumatic eating disorders that have a strong link with stress, but also metabolic syndromes, linked to immunity and even cancer.”

Chen points out that there is a genetic component, in addition to environmental circumstances, that is important for the emergence of these illnesses, but stress also plays a preponderant role. “It’s probably the most important environmental factor that can affect your health.”

Despite this, concerns about stress do not usually appear very prominently in prevention policies. “I think people worry less because, you know, if a virus attacks you now, you’ll be sick in two days. When you’re exposed to mild stress on a chronic basis, whether it’s work, the boss, traffic, it doesn’t seem to have an influence, but it accumulates and after 20 years it turns into diabetes, depression. So people need to be aware and think about how to reduce the level of stress by doing simple things like physical activities, maybe meditation. There are many things that can reduce stress without medication — and I’m talking about this before it becomes a pathology.”

With regard to treatments, at the moment there are options for chemical interventions – medications – and psychotherapy. In both cases, according to Chen, the success rate is the same, although you never know in advance what will work for whom. “The success rate of psychotherapy after one year is virtually identical to the success rate of any drug available on the market — 67%,” he says. “And what happens after a year is that if you stop taking your medication, you have a good chance of getting back to that feeling. If you stop psychotherapy, because you learn about the processes, you’re more likely to be okay.”

He highlights that the stress management situation has become even more complicated in recent times, especially with children and adolescents, because of the Covid pandemic. And, of course, war conflicts around the world don’t help either. “We’ve seen a dramatic increase in people suffering from depression and anxiety, we’re seeing an increase in suicidal ideation. Now in Israel, in the war, we’ve had a 30% increase in prescriptions for anxiety and depression.”

The world is going through difficult times. Is there a special role for scientists in this? For Chen, there is no doubt. “It’s sad that there aren’t enough scientists wanting to become politicians. If there were, I think this world would be very different. Science is extremely collaborative, it doesn’t see borders. Even between countries that are hostile towards each other, this never happens within of the scientific community. They are collaborative by nature.”

“And solving these problems that affect all of humanity – environment, medicine – will only come with international collaborations and partnerships and the sharing of data and knowledge,” he continues. “So I think scientists have a very important role and, if you ask me what the role model should be for children and teenagers, they want to be Messi today, but they should want to be scientists – these are the people who will impact the future of society. humanity.”