Elon Musk\u2019s brain tech startup Neuralink is set to implant its system in a second human patient within \u201cthe next week or so,\u201d according to Musk\u2019s announcement on Wednesday. This follows efforts to address hardware issues encountered with the first participant.<\/p>\n
Neuralink is developing a brain-computer interface (BCI) designed to assist patients with breakthrough paralysis-control technology. The initial system, named Telepathy, involves 64 \u201cthreads\u201d thinner than a human hair, which are inserted directly into the brain to record neural signals through 1,024 electrodes.<\/p>\n
BCIs have been a subject of academic study for decades, with companies like Synchron, Paradromics, and Precision Neuroscience also working on their versions. However, none have received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to commercialize their devices.<\/p>\n
In a recent livestream with Neuralink executives, Musk mentioned the company aims to implant its device in the \u201chigh single digits\u201d of patients this year, though specific dates and locations remain undisclosed.<\/p>\n
In January, Neuralink successfully implanted its BCI in its first human patient, 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh, at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix as part of an FDA-approved clinical study. While the surgery initially went well, some threads from the implant later retracted from Arbaugh\u2019s brain. Despite considering removal, Neuralink found the issue posed no direct risk to Arbaugh\u2019s health.<\/p>\n
Musk and Neuralink executives stated that only about 15% of the channels in Arbaugh\u2019s implant are functional. Nonetheless, Arbaugh uses the BCI to watch videos, read, and play chess and other video games for up to 70 hours a week.<\/p>\n
For future implants, Neuralink plans to mitigate retraction and monitor it more closely. President DJ Seo mentioned that one method involves sculpting the skull\u2019s surface to minimize the gap under the implant. Additionally, the company intends to insert some threads deeper into the brain tissue and track movement. Dr. Matthew MacDougall, head of neurosurgery at Neuralink, stated that threads would be inserted at various depths, given the retraction possibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FDA will continue to monitor the safety of those enrolled in the study for Neuralink\u2019s implant device through required, regular reports,\u201d an FDA spokesperson told CNBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Elon Musk\u2019s brain tech startup Neuralink is set to implant its system in a second human patient within \u201cthe next week or so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":331,"featured_media":48098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[157,4745],"class_list":["post-48097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","tag-elon-musk","tag-tech"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}