British bid to create brain implants that can compete with Elon Musk's Neuralink

Musk's Neuralink has received the green light from US regulators to begin human trials. Photo: Neuralink

The UK's £800m innovation agency is ramping up plans to create brain implant technology to rival Elon Musk's Neuralink.

The UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), created last year, called for research ideas in an attempt to create microchips that can be inserted into the human brain.

The proposal mirrors similar efforts by Mr. Musk's Neuralink, which has developed a brain-scanning chip designed to be implanted under the human skull.

Neuralink has already received permission to begin recruiting patients for its first human trials.

Research has shown that brain implants can help people with devices to control paralysis through thoughts.

ARIA Program Director Jacques Carolan said: “Neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders cause enormous social and economic burden.”

“We need a new set of tools that will allow us to interact with the human brain on a large scale.”< /p>

ARIA's call for «breakthrough ideas» in brain implants comes after the organization said current efforts to create such technology are invasive, complex and expensive.

The company said it wants to “dramatically” increase the number of brain implant surgeries, making them “minimally invasive.”

Dominic Cummings came up with ARIA before he left Downing Street as a way to strengthen the UK's position as a global science superpower. Photo: House of Commons

Dominic Cummings, a former adviser to Boris Johnson, was the architect of ARIA, which launched with a budget of £800 million to support high-risk scientific ideas.

It's now catching up with Mr. Musk's Neuralink, which began recruiting participants for its first human clinical trial in September.

The trial will involve placing a «small, cosmetically invisible implant in the part of the brain that plans movement» to they could use their thoughts to take action. computer.

ARIA's plans are at a very early stage as it seeks experts to pitch ideas before giving them a share of the funding to take them forward.

It says the novel Treatment Deep brain stimulators, where an implanted device sends electrical impulses to the brain, can help people suffering from depression or anxiety.

Similar treatments are already being used to treat Parkinson's disease.

Latest study ARIA also identified technology developed by Australian company Synchron, a competitor to Neuralink, which has created a stent that can be inserted into blood vessels in the brain to pick up signals.