OpenAI-backed firm to use ultrasound to read minds. Does the science stand up?

"Brain implants are beginning to help people with severe disabilities to speak and even sing in near-real time. Now, a company wants to read people's minds and treat mental conditions without implanting electrodes deep into the brain by using ultrasound - high-frequency sound waves above the range of human hearing. Merge Labs, which launched last month with only a vague description of its goals, is one of many companies in a booming brain-computer interface (BCI) market."

"What makes it stand out is US$252 million in investment from funders that include artificial-intelligence firm OpenAI, based in San Francisco, California. The start-up is being billed as a rival to Elon Musk's Neuralink, which makes devices that detect and manipulate electrical activity in the brain and are already being trialled in patients. Nature asked researchers who the people are behind Merge Labs and whether the company's approach is based on solid science."

"The for-profit company bills itself a research laboratory, rather than a firm focused on a rapid return on investment. It was spun out of the non-profit research organization Forest Neurotech, based in Los Angeles, California. Merge Lab's co-founders include three researchers: Forest Neurotech's chief scientific officer Tyson Aflalo and chief executive Sumner Norman and Mikhail Shapiro, a BCI researcher at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and Forest Neurotech adviser."

Merge Labs is a for-profit research laboratory spun out of Forest Neurotech that pursues noninvasive ultrasound methods to image and modulate brain activity. The company plans to place sensors under the skull or operate through a bone window instead of inserting electrodes deep into brain tissue. Merge Labs received US$252 million from investors including OpenAI and positions itself as a competitor to deep-electrode firms such as Neuralink. Co-founders include researchers Tyson Aflalo, Sumner Norman and Mikhail Shapiro, plus entrepreneurs Alex Blania, Sandro Herbig and Sam Altman. Researchers are evaluating whether the ultrasound-based approach has a solid scientific foundation for decoding thoughts and treating mental conditions.

Read at Nature