Welcome to the Brain Age

💭 In a first-of-its-kind procedure, German scientists used a brain implant to allow a patient with complete paralysis to communicate via his thoughts, according to a study published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications.

• The participant in the study was a 36-year-old man with ALS (or Lou Gehrig's Disease) – a neurological disease that destroys the brain nerves that control movement.
• Eventually, patients with ALS lose all motor function and reach a completely “locked in” state.
• But with the help of an implantable device that reads his brain signals, the man suffering from locked-in syndrome was able to select letters and form sentences to communicate with his family and doctors.

🧠 Zoom out: The brain-computer interface market was valued at $1.4 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow 15+% each year through 2027, per business consulting firm Grand View Research.

• Yesterday, Snap announced the acquisition of NextMind, a neurotech startup that developed a headband letting the wearer control aspects of a computer – like unlocking an iPad screen or aiming a gun in a video game – with their thoughts.😳
• A Pew Research survey last week found 6 in 10 Americans would consider having a computer chip surgically implanted into their brains – like those developed by Elon Musk-led Neuralink – as long as they could turn it off.