"Musk's Neuralink to conduct second human trial next week: Continues to improve chip implant issues"

The neurotechnology company Neuralink and its co-founder Musk revealed on the 11th that the company is expected to conduct the second human trial next week, and will continue to improve and address the hardware issues of the first human trial patient, Noland Arbaugh, who faced "implant wire retraction".

What is Neuralink?

Neuralink is a neurotechnology startup focused on creating brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to help paralyzed and disabled patients. According to their website, their first product named "Telepathy" consists of 64 ultra-fine and flexible threads with 1,024 electrodes that are implanted in the brain regions controlling movement. It serves as a recording and transmission device to translate the patient's thoughts into digital movements.

Last May, the company announced receiving approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct its first human clinical trials.

Neuralink, a neurotechnology company, receives FDA approval for its first human clinical trials, Musk to personally conduct implants in the future

Neuralink to conduct second human trial

In a live stream with Neuralink executives yesterday, Musk stated that they plan to perform chip implant surgeries for more patients this year, without disclosing specific timelines or numbers.

Furthermore, Neuralink executives mentioned that they are addressing "hardware issues" with the first trial participant, Noland Arbaugh, including adjusting the skull surface to reduce gaps below the implant:

Only about 15% of Noland's implant is functioning properly, yet he uses the BCI to watch videos, read, and play other electronic games, sometimes up to 70 hours a week.

Neuralink's head neurosurgeon, Matthew MacDougall, stated that future implant trials will focus on reducing retraction and closely monitoring the operation of implants:

Since we know that implants may retract, we will insert threads at "various depths."

Interestingly, under the comments, a user even asked Neuralink if they could help President Biden, who is experiencing slight delays due to his age:

Will Neuralink help Biden? Or has he gone too far already?

What happened to the first human trial participant?

In January this year, marking a significant milestone in the field of neurotechnology, Neuralink successfully implanted its first human with a brain-computer interface.

In March, the company even conducted a live stream with the 39-year-old trial participant Noland Arbaugh, claiming that the patient could control a computer mouse with thoughts and play simple computer games.

First Neuralink chip implant recipient demonstrates human-machine integration: Playing chess games with thoughts

However, in a blog post in May, Neuralink revealed that Noland's implant encountered issues with thread retraction post-surgery, significantly reducing real-time monitoring accuracy.

The company also assured at the time that, despite hardware issues with the implant, it would not directly endanger the patient's health and safety:

While there are hardware issues with the implant, it does not pose a direct threat to the patient's health and safety.