Max Hodak: Patients go from being almost blind to being able to read every letter on an eye chart and do crossword puzzles'

"The brain is the seat of your entire experience. It's the only organ that I really care about. The rest of the body exists to support the brain, move it around and facilitate its functions. This was quite clear to me from a very early age. And, with brain-computer interfaces, certain effects can be achieved that aren't possible in [the field of] medicine."

"Q. How so? A. With brain-computer interfaces, you place an implant in the motor cortex and, 30 minutes later, you have a patient playing video games with the PRIMA retinal prosthesis. Patients go from being almost blind so much so that they can't recognize faces to being able to read every letter on an eye chart and do crossword puzzles."

Science Corp.'s PRIMA ocular prosthesis enabled several patients with severe eyesight problems to regain the ability to read letters and numbers, and some patients read entire pages of a book. Max Hodak, a 36-year-old biomedical engineer and co-founder of Neuralink, founded Science Corp. in 2021 after ending his partnership with Musk. The startup focuses on restoring vision through brain-computer interfaces and retinal implants. Hodak describes the brain as the seat of experience and emphasizes that the body exists to support brain function. He reports that implants can rapidly restore functional vision, allowing tasks like reading eye-chart letters and solving crossword puzzles.

Read at english.elpais.com