implant | Common News Update

Apr92021 by adminNo Comments

Elon Musk’s brain implant firm teaches monkey to play Pong with its mind

Technology

Elon Musk's brain implant company Neuralink has released a video showing how it has taught a monkey - Pager, a nine-year-old macaque - to play the video game Pong with its mind.The video follows Mr Musk's assertion in February that the company has "a monkey with a wireless implant in their skull with tiny wires" that it uses to play video games. Neuralink Corporation, which Elon Musk owns alongside his SpaceX and Tesla businesses, previously claimed to have implanted coin-sized wireless sensors inside the brains of two pigs, describing the sensors as "a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires". Image: 'He's a happy monkey,' says Elon Musk At the time of the video, Pager was six weeks on from having had the Neuralink devices installed - o...

Aug182019 by adminNo Comments

Women take legal action over breast implant cancer link

Health

Twenty UK women are taking legal action after developing a rare form of cancer linked to their breast implants. More than 50 women have been diagnosed with the same condition in the UK, and hundreds more worldwide.A top surgeon said there were gaps in implant information and people were almost being "used as guinea pigs".One manufacturer has issued a worldwide recall of some textured implants, which have been linked to most cases of breast implant-associated lymphoma.The MHRA, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, which regulates medical devices in the UK, is currently collecting data on women affected by breast implant associated-anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL).It has assessed the risk to be one in e...

Apr242019 by adminNo Comments

‘Exhilarating’ implant turns thoughts to speech

Science

Scientists have developed a brain implant that can read people's minds and turn their thoughts to speech. The team at the University of California, San Francisco says the technology is "exhilarating".They add that their findings, published in the journal Nature, could help people when disease robs them of their ability to talk. Experts said the findings were compelling and offered hope of restoring speech.How does it work?The mind-reading technology works in two stages. First an electrode is implanted in the brain to pick up the electrical signals that manoeuvre the lips, tongue, voice box and jaw. Then powerful computing is used to simulate how the movements in the mouth and throat would form different sounds. This results in s...

Oct312018 by adminNo Comments

Spinal implant helps three paralysed men walk again

Health

Three paralysed men, who were told they would spend the rest of their lives in a wheelchair, are able to walk again thanks to doctors in Switzerland.An electrical device inserted around the men's spines boosted signals from their brains to their legs. And it also helped damaged nerves in the spinal cord to regrow.The researchers hope that this unexpected bonus will enable some paralysed people ultimately to regain independent movement.BBC News has had exclusive access to the patients in the clinical trial, the results of which are published in the journal Nature.The first patient to be treated was 30-year-old Swiss man David M'zee, who suffered a severe spinal injury seven years ago in a sporting accident. 'Try the impossible'Dav...

Sep202018 by adminNo Comments

FDA disagrees, calls meeting on study showing breast implant link to rare conditions

Health

The Food and Drug Administration has refuted a link between silicone breast implants and higher rates of rare health conditions, found in a recent study. The agency has called a meeting next year to review all available data, including this study. The study has sparked controversy within the medical community, especially since silicone breast implants have been taken off the market in the past. What to know about silicone breast implants The current generation of silicone-filled implants was approved in 2006, after the FDA lifted a previous 1992 ban that had been in place because of safety concerns. The approval came after the Institute of Medicine second review of the evidence that led to the 1992 ban, which concluded there was no association between breast implants and autoimmune ...