Wu Jinsong on the medical-engineering crossover of brain-computer interfaces: the key lies in clinical need-driven innovation

Fudan University professor and deputy director of the Department of Neurosurgery at Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Wu Jinsong said in an interview in Shanghai on September 12 that braincomputer interfaces are essentially information interaction ports between human intelligence and artificial intelligence, and that the longterm development goal is to make human wisdom the dominant force. He believes that the most important current applications of braincomputer interfaces are still in the medical field, with areas such as hemiplegia, blindness, speech disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases all expected to achieve functional reconstruction with the help of this technology. As the aging population grows, related demand may further expand. Wu Jinsong pointed out that braincomputer interfaces are not a single technological breakthrough, but rather a systematic project involving the integration of medicine and engineering and multidisciplinary collaboration. Rather than starting from the technology to search for scenarios, it is better to begin with clinical pain points and then promote technology R&D, engineering transformation, and product implementation. He gave the example that the team’s collaboration with a company to develop flexible cortical electrodes was centered on the specific clinical need for signal coverage. He also mentioned that Shanghai has multiple resources in the braincomputer interface industrial chain, including hospitals, laboratories, enterprises, capital, and talent. If clinical institutions, universities, national laboratories, and the manufacturing sector can be more effectively linked, related products and algorithms will be more likely to form a complete chain. The team had previously made progress in speech synthesis and EEG decoding, with realtime online accuracy reaching about 70%, which has already attracted international attention. Speaking about the future, Wu Jinsong said that industry development must also place equal emphasis