Jo Best, ZD Net
The difference between having a tool in your hand and having a brain-computer interface — essentially just another tool, albeit an advanced one — is that the BCI goes directly to the neurons that are helping you interact with the world, says Justin Sanchez, a tech fellow at the Battelle Memorial Institute. “So the potential for those neurons to be directly adapted for the brain computer interface is that much higher [than with other tools]… there is adaptation or plasticity of your neurons when you use a brain interface and that plasticity can change in a wide variety of ways depending upon who you are,” he says. If that sounds wild to you, or if you’re questioning your brain’s ability to cope with faster-than-nerves inputs, you’re not alone in wondering how technology can alter us. BCIs give us tools that work in ways that we’ve never had to learn before — systems that don’t need muscles to produce actions, and information that’s conveyed directly to the brain, rather than through our eyes, ears and so on.
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