Switzerland Weiss Biological and Neural Engineering Center released the latest preclinical neural data obtained by its fully implantable ABILITY brain computer interface system. The results released at the 2022 meeting of the Society of Neuroscience held recently in San Diego, the United States, showed the flexibility of ABILITY in connecting different electrode types. ABILITY is a wireless implantable medical device, designed for long-term implantation and family use, which can be used to restore communication and movement in patients with severe paralysis caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, brain stem stroke or spinal cord injury. The preclinical feasibility study conducted by the team recorded the brain activity of sheep through the microelectrode array implanted in the cortex below the skull and the electrocorticography grid electrode. The researchers said that the device can record and transmit neural data in real time within a few months. These new results are an important step towards proving the safety and effectiveness of the device. The performance and data quality of the device are encouraging. The two microelectrode arrays of the device, each smaller than a pea, record the activity of a single neuron. These neurons have a series of fine needles that penetrate the surface of the cortex. The device can decode fine motor intentions from very small brain regions with high accuracy. In another study, four electrocorticography grids, each about the size of a stamp, recorded signals on the surface of the cortex. Compared with the microelectrode array, the electrocorticography grid electrode can cover a larger brain area and measure the combined activity of neurons, thus decoding human signals. ABILITY system can record 128 neural data channels at a high enough frequency to observe the communication and low-frequency synchronization between single neurons. It transmits data wirelessly through the skin and provides power wirelessly through the skin in an inductive manner. In the study, patients learned to regulate neural activity to control spelling software. The team said that the study emphasized the clinical needs of breakthrough implantation technology to improve the ease of use of patients and nursing staff. The research team is currently preparing to conduct human clinical trials to evaluate the performance of ABILITY system and understand the acceptance of patients, nursing staff and medical care professionals on the implantable brain computer interface. ABILITY Brain Computer Interface System is about to take a critical step from animal experiments to human clinical trials. We can see that in recent years, there has been a lot of similar research progress, and EEG signals have been decoded in various ways to achieve communication between patients and the outside world. ABILITY introduced in this paper is an implantable system, which records the activity of neurons, decodes the movement intention of the brain and human voice. It transmits raw data through the skin and also supplies power to the implant through the skin. Of course, the accuracy, ease of use and safety of BCI system will still be the focus of patients and medical staff, and a series of studies need to be carried out. (Outlook New Times)