Elon Musk’s brain implant business, Neuralink, has successfully implanted a brain chip in a second human patient. This development comes after FDA approval and is part of the company’s continuous efforts to test its brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. The BCI is intended to enable people with paralysis control digital gadgets with their thoughts. Neuralink intends to continue these trials with up to ten patients by the end of this year.
By the end of the year, the business hopes to have up to ten patients participating in its trials. The trials are critical for fine-tuning the technology and assuring its reliability. Despite problems with the first implant, Elon Musk is confident about the potential of Neuralink’s technology to improve lives, including the restoration of spinal nerve functions in paralyzed patients.
Earlier this year, Neuralink successfully implanted its first patient, a 30-year-old paraplegic man named Noland Arbaugh, with their experimental brain-computer interface (BCI). Arbaugh’s initial experience with the implant was promising; he displayed the ability to play chess and operate a computer cursor with his mind. However, the trial faced difficulties when some of the small wires attached to the chip became loose, diminishing its functionality.
Neuralink learned from the initial trial and made architectural changes to increase the stability and performance of the brain chip. One of the important changes is to bury the cables deeper into the brain, increasing their depth from five to eight millimeters. This adjustment seeks to prevent the wires from becoming loose and provide more dependable signal delivery. Following FDA permission, Neuralink implanted the revised chip in a second patient. This stage is part of a larger effort to test the technology on up to ten patients by the end of the year. The company is now recruiting participants from a pool of over 1,000 quadriplegics, albeit less than 100 have qualified thus far. Neuralink is expanding its recruitment efforts to Canada and the UK, pending regulatory approval in those countries.
