SpaceX and Tesla's CEO Elon Musk said he believes his company's brain chip could help in the treatment of morbid obesity.
However, a Business Insider report specified that according to experts, this dream of the billionaire is not as "far-fetched as it may seem."
Elon Musk said his Neuralink brain chip could help treat morbid obesity. Scientists say it's a long shot – but not an impossibility. https://t.co/Tr01P0hzcV
— Insider Science (@insiderscience) April 23, 2022
Professor Andrew Jackson, an expert in the neutral interface at Newcastle University told the media outlet he doesn't think it is any more impossible than other claims for the "potential for neurotechnology."
Musk suggested during an interview with TED earlier this month, thereby adding morbid obesity to a growing list of illnesses he believes the brain chip could help treat.
According to experts, a commercially-available obesity-busting brain chip was a long way off, although the concept was promising if supported by the right science.
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Elon Musk claimed his Neuralink’s brain chip may help treat morbid obesity.
Microchip for Weight Loss
Founded in 2016 by Musk, Neuralink is currently developing a microchip implanted into the skull of a person.
Tiny wires fitted with electrodes fan out from the device into the brain, enabling it to read and potentially boost brain activity.
The company executive has previously named a great range of neurological disorders he believes the brain chi could treat. Such conditions include Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
He made far-fetched claims about the chip too, potentially solving autism and developing symbiosis between artificial intelligence and humans.
A Technology for Improving Patients' Lives
Other than the comments of Musk in his recent interview with TED, there are no further details about how Neuralink could help deal with obesity.
Extensively, though, the concept is plausible. In a similar HSEWatch report, it was specified that according to professor of metabolism and medicine Sadaf Farooqi, from the University of Cambridge, their team and others have shown that in some individuals suffering from severe obesity, it is the function of a specific brain region, the hypothalamus, that's certainly driving frequently, an increase in appetite.
Essentially, the hypothalamus is a gland nestled in the brain's center part that has an important role in the regulation of hormone production.
Farooqui explained if a way to target that specific region could be found, and even those specific neurons driving appetite, then, theoretically, technology or drug that did that could improve the patients' lives.
Brain Implant for Morbid Obesity Treatment
A brain implant would be arguably less invasive as well, compared to other treatments for morbid obesity, Jackson from Newcastle University said.
Some of such treatments involve changing the function and shape of the digestive system of a patient. Moreover, some researchers are quite confident in brain implant technology that they have moved to trials of proof of concept on humans, which they have gained mixed results.
One trial that involves six people who have morbid obesity, described in the research as a body mass index higher than 40, involved a brain implant that transferred frequent electric pulses to the hypothalamus.
In a similar report, Verified News Explorer Network stated that according to Elemental, one study participant lost more than 100 pounds, three lost a little weight although not a considerable amount, and the other two did not lose weight at all.
Consequently, a brain chip that can effectively combat obesity is likely a long way off. Neuralink, for instance, has yet to attain approval for human testing, and according to Musk during the interview that once the company can start implanting chips in brains, Neuralink will focus on brain and spinal injuries perhaps, for a decade.
Jackson said was with a lot of claims of Neuralink, there remains quite a lot of science that would be necessitated, alongside the development of technology to deliver this as a treatment.
Information about Neuralink is shown on CNET's YouTube video below:
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Check out more news and information on Neuralink on Science Times.
