Matthew MacDougall

Yeah, so talking broadly about neurosurgery, we can get anywhere. It's routine for me to put deep brain stimulating electrodes near the very bottom of the brain, entering from the top and passing about a two millimeter wire all the way into the bottom of the brain. And that's not revolutionary. A lot of people do that. And we can do that with very high precision.

Yeah, so talking broadly about neurosurgery, we can get anywhere. It's routine for me to put deep brain stimulating electrodes near the very bottom of the brain, entering from the top and passing about a two millimeter wire all the way into the bottom of the brain. And that's not revolutionary. A lot of people do that. And we can do that with very high precision.

I use a robot from Globus to do that surgery. several times a month. It's pretty routine.

I use a robot from Globus to do that surgery. several times a month. It's pretty routine.

I use a robot from Globus to do that surgery. several times a month. It's pretty routine.

Yeah, so it's a cool process on the software side. You take a preoperative MRI that's extremely high resolution data of the entire brain and You put the patient to sleep, put their head in a frame that holds the skull very rigidly, and then you take a CT scan of their head while they're asleep with that frame on, and then merge the MRI and the CT in software.

Yeah, so it's a cool process on the software side. You take a preoperative MRI that's extremely high resolution data of the entire brain and You put the patient to sleep, put their head in a frame that holds the skull very rigidly, and then you take a CT scan of their head while they're asleep with that frame on, and then merge the MRI and the CT in software.

Yeah, so it's a cool process on the software side. You take a preoperative MRI that's extremely high resolution data of the entire brain and You put the patient to sleep, put their head in a frame that holds the skull very rigidly, and then you take a CT scan of their head while they're asleep with that frame on, and then merge the MRI and the CT in software.

you have a plan based on the MRI where you can see these nuclei deep in the brain. You can't see them on CT, but if you trust the merging of the two images, then you indirectly know on the CT where that is and therefore indirectly know where in reference to the titanium frame screwed to their head those targets are.

you have a plan based on the MRI where you can see these nuclei deep in the brain. You can't see them on CT, but if you trust the merging of the two images, then you indirectly know on the CT where that is and therefore indirectly know where in reference to the titanium frame screwed to their head those targets are.

you have a plan based on the MRI where you can see these nuclei deep in the brain. You can't see them on CT, but if you trust the merging of the two images, then you indirectly know on the CT where that is and therefore indirectly know where in reference to the titanium frame screwed to their head those targets are.

And so this is 60s technology to manually compute trajectories given the entry point and target and dial in some goofy-looking titanium actuators with little tick marks on them. the modern version of that is to use a robot, just like a little KUKA arm you might see building cars at the Tesla factory.

And so this is 60s technology to manually compute trajectories given the entry point and target and dial in some goofy-looking titanium actuators with little tick marks on them. the modern version of that is to use a robot, just like a little KUKA arm you might see building cars at the Tesla factory.

And so this is 60s technology to manually compute trajectories given the entry point and target and dial in some goofy-looking titanium actuators with little tick marks on them. the modern version of that is to use a robot, just like a little KUKA arm you might see building cars at the Tesla factory.

This small robot arm can show you the trajectory that you intended from the pre-op MRI and establish a very rigid holder through which you can drill a small hole in the skull and pass a small rigid wire deep into that area of the brain that's hollow and and put your electrode through that hollow wire and then remove all of that except the electrode.

This small robot arm can show you the trajectory that you intended from the pre-op MRI and establish a very rigid holder through which you can drill a small hole in the skull and pass a small rigid wire deep into that area of the brain that's hollow and and put your electrode through that hollow wire and then remove all of that except the electrode.

This small robot arm can show you the trajectory that you intended from the pre-op MRI and establish a very rigid holder through which you can drill a small hole in the skull and pass a small rigid wire deep into that area of the brain that's hollow and and put your electrode through that hollow wire and then remove all of that except the electrode.

So you end up with the electrode very, very precisely placed far from the skull surface. Now that's standard technology that's already been out in the world for a while. Neuralink right now is focused entirely on cortical targets, surface targets, because there's no trivial way to get say hundreds of wires deep inside the brain without doing a lot of damage. So your question, what do you see?

So you end up with the electrode very, very precisely placed far from the skull surface. Now that's standard technology that's already been out in the world for a while. Neuralink right now is focused entirely on cortical targets, surface targets, because there's no trivial way to get say hundreds of wires deep inside the brain without doing a lot of damage. So your question, what do you see?

So you end up with the electrode very, very precisely placed far from the skull surface. Now that's standard technology that's already been out in the world for a while. Neuralink right now is focused entirely on cortical targets, surface targets, because there's no trivial way to get say hundreds of wires deep inside the brain without doing a lot of damage. So your question, what do you see?