So far, the Neuroscience Program Division of DARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency of the United States Department of Defense) (also known as the Department of Defense Crazy Science Division) has focused on technologies that can serve soldiers returning home due to physical or brain disabilities, for example, funding Research on prostheses connected to the nervous system and research on brain implants that can treat post-traumatic stress disorder. But the methods of military operations are changing, and DARPA's priorities must also change. At a meeting celebrating the 60th anniversary of DARPA last week, officials described the next frontier of neuroscience research: technology that enables able-bodied soldiers to have superpowers. "Warriors need new ways to interact with and interoperate with machines," said Al Emondi, DARPA's latest neurotechnology project manager. "But so far, most of the technology needs to be applied to fighters through surgery. We will change at this point." The Next Generation Non-Surgical Neurotechnology (N3) project will fund research on technologies that can transmit high-fidelity signals between the brain and certain external machines without requiring the user to perform surgery to rewire or implant the device. The project was announced in March this year, and Emondi is currently selecting researchers who will receive funding for the project. He told IEEE Spectrum that it expects to make an announcement in early 2019. DARPA has also noticed that brain devices that allow people to have superpowers without surgery may be used in areas other than the military. Justin Sanchez, director of the DARPA Office of Biotechnology, said that the proof-of-concept technology generated by the N3 project may lead to consumer products, "this will give birth to new industries." This project has two directions: one is for researchers to develop completely non-invasive technology, and the other is for researchers to develop "minutely invasive" technology. Here are some explanations for them. Completely non-invasive technology: DARPA will focus on research in this area, which seems a bit surprising, because there are already many non-invasive neurotechnologies. For example, simply place electrodes on the scalp to detect electroencephalograms (EEG, a technology that has been used for decades to read brain signals) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS, a method of shaking the brain) , Is currently trying to treat depression, improve exercise capacity and other functions). But Sanchez said that these existing technologies will never provide sufficiently accurate signal transmission for the applications envisaged by DARPA. The goal of the N3 project is to develop a new non-invasive technology that can achieve high performance that currently can only be achieved through implanted electrodes embedded in brain tissue (thus having a direct interface with neurons)-or "discharge" in neurons. Record electrical signals when triggering actions, or stimulate them to discharge them. The N3 project requires non-invasive technology to be able to read signals and write information into 1 cubic millimeter of brain tissue, and these drugs are completed within 10 milliseconds. Emondi said that in order to obtain such spatial and temporal resolution even in the presence of a skull barrier, researchers had to find new ways to detect neural activity. "When a neuron fires, it changes its reflectivity-can we catch that light signal?" he asked. "When it discharges, it actually emits sound waves-can we catch it?" Minimally invasive: DARPA invented the term minutely invasive to avoid confusion with the term minimally invasive (also translated as minimally invasive). In medicine, the latter usually means laparoscopic surgery. DARPA does not want its new brain technology to require a small incision. On the contrary, minutely invasive technology may implant the device into the brain in the form of injections, pills or even nasal spray. Emondi envisions a "nano converter" that can be placed inside a neuron. When an electrical signal is sent out, it can convert it into some other type of signal that can be received through the skull. DARPA hopes that by the end of this four-year project, all researchers will be ready to demonstrate their technology through "defense-related missions." For example, a demonstrator might use brain signals to fly a drone or control a fighter jet simulator (just like the paralyzed woman Jan Scheuermann used a brain implant in 2015). When asked about the killer application of this technology, Emondi said that he likes the idea of ​​using this technology in "active cyber defense," which might make security experts truly feel the intrusion. "You are not on the Internet, you are on the Internet," he said. Anything developed in the N3 project is only a proof of concept, and requires regulatory approval before it can be widely used by fighters or the general public. But as some large companies in Silicon Valley are also working on neurotechnology, consumer-oriented brain devices seem to appear soon. DARPA's Sanchez said that making brain technology easy to use will open the floodgates. "We can imagine a future where this technology will be used. But it will allow millions of people to imagine their own future. What do you want to do with your brain?" Ceramic Rod,Ceramic Bar,Zro2 Ceramic Stick,Alumina Ceramic Rod Yixing Guangming Special Ceramics Co.,Ltd , https://www.yxgmtc.com