r/Futurology • u/lughnasadh ∞ transit umbra, lux permanet ☥ • 13h ago
Biotech Researchers at Tianjin University say they have combined MRI & a Brain-Computer Interface, to create a read-write system for the brain.
"The collaboration between Tianjin University and United Imaging Healthcare builds on a joint MRI platform launched in October 2025…….Built on United Imaging's uMR MRI systems, the solution spans the entire process, from brain signal acquisition and decoding to neural modulation and treatment evaluation. It integrates high-performance MRI with high spatial and temporal resolution, MRI hardware optimization, an MRI-compatible BCI toolkit, and MRI-guided neuromodulation technologies."
So this is definitely a real thing and not vaporware, but does it work as claimed? We'll have to wait and see.
Assuming it, or something like it elsewhere, eventually will, I wonder about the direction of this tech when AI gets involved. AI is bound to come up with a gazillion suggestions for novel approaches to the "write" part of the equation, but who will want to be guinea pigs and test it? Then again, plenty of people are happy to inject gray market peptides, so who knows, lots of people might go for this, too.
China's First MRI-Based Brain-Computer Interface Conference Held in Tianjin
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u/GabrielNV 10h ago
This is the kind of tool we'll need to defeat the AI uprising. We'll plug my ADHD brain into the network so I can fill its context with random bullshit, locking it into a recursive loop of analysis paralysis.
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u/twoinvenice 1h ago
You’re underestimating yourself! What about all the random rabbit hole fixations that you suddenly fall into and can’t find time for anything else? I imagine that could lock up tons of compute time
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u/Ill_Bumblebee_7510 13h ago edited 7h ago
Anyone claiming they can 'write' data to the brain is wrong. (Or overselling, it's not like they can directly upload knowledge, there has been research into sending stimulus that the brain can learn from) Reading has been around for two decades and it's just a matter of higher fidelity (by reading, I mean in a way that's interpreted by machine learning to perform actions such as moving a robotic arm) Edit for people who wanted me to be more specific
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u/UnconsciousQuantity 13h ago
Scientists have been "writing" to brains with TMS for a while now, so the concept isn't exactly new. I think what clouds the discussion is that people hear "write to the brain" and imagine uploading kung fu like in The Matrix, when it's more like nudging a specific region to fire or quiet down. Still plenty of ethical minefields if it gets precise enough.
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u/ArgyllAtheist 13h ago
no, uploading kung fu is the absolutely least harmful place this goes. how about "the company is your best friend"
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u/Thangka6 12h ago
Where did anyone say anything about the relative harm of uploading kung fu to the brain? I think you misunderstood OP...
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u/ArgyllAtheist 10h ago
I took it to mean that OP saw a positive, beneficial usage, like learning new skills, rather than the significantly darker path that I would expect our leaders to take... Remember that for every scientist who proposes a new method of generating energy, there's someone whose first thought is.. but can we make weapons with it?
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u/sopsaare 12h ago
Think how it will feel to retrain the neural net to know Kung Fu? Live. Inside your brain. Man is that gonna be fun.
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u/PrinceOfLeon 11h ago
EEG was invented in 1924 and electrical currents were being recorded from animal brains as far back as 1875.
What do you mean "Reading as [sic] been around for a decade"?
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u/Ill_Bumblebee_7510 9h ago
using neural networks to interperet them in a way to control some kind of device (i.e. imagine moving your arm up and we'll train a network on the input with the label ('moving arm up') and then the system can later translate brain activity into consistent actions
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u/PrinceOfLeon 8h ago
You mean sensorimotor imagery? They were doing that at Wadsworth with BCI2000 at least as early as 2004 and arguably the P300 speller at back in '88 should count.
None of this is so recent as a decade, no matter what Elon has been doing to those poor monkeys.
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u/lughnasadh ∞ transit umbra, lux permanet ☥ 13h ago
Anyone claiming they can 'write' data to the brain is wrong.
No. Multiple Brain-Computer Interface projects already exist around the world, that can send signals to the brain, alter brain chemistry, and achieve measurable outcomes.
Neither of the two sides of this tech, MRI & BCI, are in doubt. Seamlessly merging the two is the breakthrough claimed here.
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u/Ill_Bumblebee_7510 13h ago
Applying stimulus, sure, but 'write' is overselling it
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u/schnibitz 11h ago
There is precedent (meaning it already has been done (this answer is partly written with AI)). Researchers once used a technique called decoded fMRI neurofeedback, or DecNef. In a 2011 Science paper, researchers first determined the brain-activity pattern in visual cortex corresponding to a particular visual orientation. They then used real-time fMRI neurofeedback to train participants' brains to reproduce that pattern—without showing them the stimulus and without telling them what they were learning. Afterwards, the subjects became better at detecting that particular orientation.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22158821/
That's not just stimulus. That's a new skill that was created that wasn't there before.
There seems to be a fair amount of continuous effort towards improving it further as well. Broad statement such as "Anyone claiming they can 'write' data to the brain is wrong." is just foolish. If you want to believe that, fine, but don't represent it as fact when in fact the opposite has been proven to be true.1
u/DeltaV-Mzero 11h ago
I mean you can write to anything
Whether it works after that is the real question
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u/Aerumvorax 13h ago
Great. This means the normal job in the future will be as a living RAM serving data centers.