Neurotech
What we would need to know to build a real brain interface
Reading motor intent works because motor cortex is comparatively well understood. Almost nothing else in the brain is.
Neurotech
Brain-computer interfaces, the trials, and the regulatory road.
Neurotech
Reading a neurotechnology paper
What to look for in a study, and which sections tell you whether the headline is supported.
Neurotech
Neurotech companies, funding and the hype cycle
A field with genuine progress, long timelines and investors who need exits sooner than the biology allows.
Neurotech
Cognitive enhancement claims, examined
Transcranial stimulation, neurofeedback and nootropics all have research literatures, and the effect sizes are smaller than the marketing.
Neurotech
Neural decoding of speech
Reconstructing intended speech from cortical activity is the most striking recent result in the field, and it is narrower than the coverage suggests.
Neurotech
Neuromodulation beyond the brain
Stimulating peripheral nerves and the spinal cord is less dramatic than brain implants and has reached far more patients.
Neurotech
Prosthetics, exoskeletons and neural control
Controlling an artificial limb from nerve or muscle signals is a solved problem in the laboratory and a much harder one at the clinic.
Neurotech
Neural data and who gets to hold it
Recordings from the brain are unusually intimate, largely unregulated as a category, and several jurisdictions have started legislating specifically.
Neurotech
Deep brain stimulation: the neurotech that already works
Hundreds of thousands of people already have electrodes implanted in their brains, and the field has learned things worth carrying forward.
Neurotech
Non-invasive neurotech and the physics of the skull
Reading brain activity through bone is limited by physics rather than by engineering budget, which sets a ceiling on what consumer devices can do.
Neurotech
Neural implants: the regulatory road
A device that goes inside the skull faces the strictest approval pathway there is, and the timeline is measured in years for good reasons.
Neurotech
Brain-computer interfaces: where the science actually is
Decades of academic work, a small number of implanted participants, and a gap between demonstrated results and marketing that is worth measuring.