Matthew MacDougall

The answer that is sad for me and other people of my demographic is that plasticity decreases with age. Healing decreases with age. I have too much gray hair to... To be optimistic about that. There are theoretical ways to increase plasticity using electrical stimulation, nothing that is totally proven out as a robust enough mechanism to offer widely to people.

Yeah, I think there's cause for optimism that we might find something useful in terms of, say, an implanted electrode that improves learning. Certainly, there's been some really amazing work recently from Nicholas Schiff, Jonathan Baker, and others who have a cohort of patients with moderate traumatic brain injury

Yeah, I think there's cause for optimism that we might find something useful in terms of, say, an implanted electrode that improves learning. Certainly, there's been some really amazing work recently from Nicholas Schiff, Jonathan Baker, and others who have a cohort of patients with moderate traumatic brain injury

Yeah, I think there's cause for optimism that we might find something useful in terms of, say, an implanted electrode that improves learning. Certainly, there's been some really amazing work recently from Nicholas Schiff, Jonathan Baker, and others who have a cohort of patients with moderate traumatic brain injury

who have had electrodes placed in the deep nucleus in the brain called the central median nucleus or just near central median nucleus. And when they apply small amounts of electricity to that part of the brain, it's almost like electronic caffeine. They're able to improve people's attention and focus. They're able to improve how well people can perform a task.

who have had electrodes placed in the deep nucleus in the brain called the central median nucleus or just near central median nucleus. And when they apply small amounts of electricity to that part of the brain, it's almost like electronic caffeine. They're able to improve people's attention and focus. They're able to improve how well people can perform a task.

who have had electrodes placed in the deep nucleus in the brain called the central median nucleus or just near central median nucleus. And when they apply small amounts of electricity to that part of the brain, it's almost like electronic caffeine. They're able to improve people's attention and focus. They're able to improve how well people can perform a task.

I think in one case, someone who was unable to work after the device was turned on, they were able to get a job. And that's sort of, you know, one of the holy grails for me with Neuralink and other technologies like this is from a purely utilitarian standpoint, can we... can we make people able to take care of themselves and their families economically again?

I think in one case, someone who was unable to work after the device was turned on, they were able to get a job. And that's sort of, you know, one of the holy grails for me with Neuralink and other technologies like this is from a purely utilitarian standpoint, can we... can we make people able to take care of themselves and their families economically again?

I think in one case, someone who was unable to work after the device was turned on, they were able to get a job. And that's sort of, you know, one of the holy grails for me with Neuralink and other technologies like this is from a purely utilitarian standpoint, can we... can we make people able to take care of themselves and their families economically again?

Can we make it so someone who's fully dependent and even maybe requires a lot of caregiver resources, can we put them in a position to be fully independent, taking care of themselves, giving back to their communities? I think that's a very compelling proposition and what motivates a lot of what I do and what a lot of the people at Neuralink are working for.

Can we make it so someone who's fully dependent and even maybe requires a lot of caregiver resources, can we put them in a position to be fully independent, taking care of themselves, giving back to their communities? I think that's a very compelling proposition and what motivates a lot of what I do and what a lot of the people at Neuralink are working for.

Can we make it so someone who's fully dependent and even maybe requires a lot of caregiver resources, can we put them in a position to be fully independent, taking care of themselves, giving back to their communities? I think that's a very compelling proposition and what motivates a lot of what I do and what a lot of the people at Neuralink are working for.

Yeah, it's like eliminating a species from an ecology. You don't know what the delicate interconnections and dependencies are. The brain is certainly a delicate, complex beast, and we don't know every potential downstream consequence of a single change that we make.

Yeah, it's like eliminating a species from an ecology. You don't know what the delicate interconnections and dependencies are. The brain is certainly a delicate, complex beast, and we don't know every potential downstream consequence of a single change that we make.

Yeah, it's like eliminating a species from an ecology. You don't know what the delicate interconnections and dependencies are. The brain is certainly a delicate, complex beast, and we don't know every potential downstream consequence of a single change that we make.

I think it's a certain kind of brittleness or a failure on the company's side if we need me to do all the surgeries. And I think something that I would very much like to work towards is a process that is so simple and so robust on the surgery side that literally anyone could do it. We want to get away from requiring intense expertise or intense experience.

I think it's a certain kind of brittleness or a failure on the company's side if we need me to do all the surgeries. And I think something that I would very much like to work towards is a process that is so simple and so robust on the surgery side that literally anyone could do it. We want to get away from requiring intense expertise or intense experience.

I think it's a certain kind of brittleness or a failure on the company's side if we need me to do all the surgeries. And I think something that I would very much like to work towards is a process that is so simple and so robust on the surgery side that literally anyone could do it. We want to get away from requiring intense expertise or intense experience.

to have this successfully done and make it as simple and translatable as possible. I mean, I would love it if every neurosurgeon on the planet had no problem doing this. I think we're probably far from a regulatory environment that would allow people that aren't neurosurgeons to do this, but not impossible.