Neurotech start-up Paradromics raises $20M to address brain-related disorders via next-gen brain-computer interfaces

Neu­ralink Com­peti­tor Rais­es $20 Mil­lion for Brain Implants (Bloomberg): A com­peti­tor to Elon Musk’s Neu­ralink said it raised $20 mil­lion, enough to get it on track to intro­duce a new gen­er­a­tion of pow­er­ful and tiny elec­trodes to the human brain. Paradromics Inc., found­ed in 2015 about a year ahead of Neu­ralink, is build­ing brain-com­put­er inter­faces that…

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The birth of “everyday” brain-computer interfaces

___ Neurable Rais­es $6 Mil­lion Series A To Build An ‘Every­day’ Brain-Com­put­er Inter­face (Forbes): “Neurable has announced a $6 mil­lion Series A round of fund­ing to move beyond VR appli­ca­tions and devel­op the every­day brain-com­put­er inter­face. These will take a head­phones form fac­tor and will tar­get con­sumers. This marks an excit­ing advance­ment for brain-com­put­er interfaces…

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Growing debate about the ethics and regulation of direct-to-consumer transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)

___ Accord­ing to the adver­tis­ing hype, you too can enjoy incred­i­ble neur­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal ben­e­fits in the com­fort of your own home by using a sim­ple elec­tri­cal device that offers tran­scra­nial direct cur­rent stim­u­la­tion (tDCS). For instance, three dif­fer­ent mod­els of tDCS devices sold online claim to improve mood, increase cre­ativ­i­ty, enhance mem­o­ry, accel­er­ate learning,…

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Harnessing innovative neurotechnologies to provide better urgent care at Banner Health

_______________ For Ban­ner Health, one of the largest non-prof­it health sys­tem in the Unit­ed States, find­ing ways to make health care eas­i­er and bet­ter for our patients is at the root of every­thing we do. That’s why we are mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant invest­ments into the dig­i­tal health and neu­rotech space, try­ing to answer some com­mon pain…

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Next: Measuring the impact of space flight on cognitive performance and brain fitness

___ The flight that brings space weight­less­ness to Earth (BBC Future): “Five, four, three, two, one…” Not many air­craft cap­tains give their pas­sen­gers a rock­et launch-style count­down before take-off, but this is no ordi­nary plane. For starters, every­one on board, apart from the crew, is a sci­en­tist and has passed a full med­ical check – including…

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Ethical issues raised around deep brain stimulation (DBS) research

Researchers grap­ple with the ethics of test­ing brain implants (Sci­ence): “In 2003, neu­rol­o­gist Helen May­berg of Emory Uni­ver­si­ty in Atlanta began to test a bold, exper­i­men­tal treat­ment for peo­ple with severe depres­sion, which involved implant­i­ng met­al elec­trodes deep in the brain in a region called area 25. The ini­tial data were promis­ing; even­tu­al­ly, they convinced…

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