Brain-computer interfaces: Unlocking the potential of man and machine

The Excerpt

USA TODAY

Daily News, News

4.4 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 July 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

It is the fodder of science fiction plots: implanting a device into the human brain... the blockbuster franchise “The Matrix” comes to mind. Here in the real world, though, it’s actually happening. While tiny computers have been implanted into less than 100 brains so far, their impact has been life-changing. Brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, have done everything from allowing increased mobility to helping with speech. Could these devices become more mainstream and help the disabled do even more in the future? Dr. Iahn Cajigas, a neurosurgeon at the University of Pennsylvania who has studied brain-computer interfaces and worked with patients using them, joins USA TODAY’s The Excerpt to share his insights.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Sunday, July 6th, 2025.
0:13.2	It is the fodder of science fiction plots implanting a device into the human brain.
0:23.3	The Blockbuster franchise, The Matrix, comes to mind.
0:26.4	Here in the real world, though, it's actually happening.
0:28.8	While tiny computers have been implanted into less than 100 brains so far, their impact has been life-changing.
0:36.4	Brain computer interfaces or BCIs have done everything from allowing increased mobility to helping with speech. Could these devices become more mainstream and help the disabled do even more in the future? To dive into all these questions and more, I'm joined by Dr. Ian Cahigas, a neurosurgeon with the University of Pennsylvania,
0:55.5	who studied brain computer interfaces and worked with patients using them for over three years.
1:01.2	Thanks for joining me, Dr. Cahigas.
1:03.2	Thank you for having me, Dana.
1:05.2	For someone who's not familiar with these BCIs, can you catch us up on the landscape here? What kinds of things
1:13.0	are they helping patients do right now?
1:15.2	It's a very exciting field. I think the best way to think about brain-computer interface
1:19.6	technology is really to think about what the brain does and understand what are the inputs
1:24.5	and outputs of the brain and then understand what can be damaged with injuries
1:29.3	of the nervous system, because that's exactly what these devices aim to restore. So as we all know,
1:33.8	there's five main senses, right? We have sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. And those are the
1:40.3	inputs to the brain. And then we have the outputs that the brain, what can the brain do to interact with the world?
1:46.0	That's really movement of muscles of the mouth, muscles of the hand to right, muscles of the leg to move.
1:52.0	And therefore, what brain computer interfaces are aiming to do is either helping get signals into the brain to restore some of the senses that have been lost, or get signals
2:02.1	out of the brain to reenable patients to interact with the world.
2:06.3	And without getting too technical, how do they work?
2:09.5	The main language of the brain is really the electrical activity in individual neurons.
	...

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