Elon Musk, the CEO of Neuralink, has revealed that the company is preparing to test its brain-computer interface and pound-coin-sized implant on a second patient.
The surgery is expected to take place within the next week, according to Musk. This announcement comes after the postponement of a similar procedure on a different patient, initially intended to be the second participant in Neuralink's human trial. The delay was due to the patient encountering health complications that made the procedure inadvisable.
As reported by The Guardian, Neuralink also disclosed that the wires connecting the first patient's brain to the implant in his skull have become "more or less very stable" after a period of detachment. "Once you do the brain surgery it takes some time for the tissues to come in and anchor the threads in place, and once that happens, everything has been stable," stated Neuralink executive Dongjin "DJ" Seo during a live stream on Twitter/X.
The first patient, Noland Arbaugh, who is paralyzed from the shoulders down, had a number of wires inside his head pull out of position, as revealed by Neuralink in May. The company did not provide specific reasons for the detachment. The implant, which uses 64 wires to connect to the brain, was left with only 15% of them functioning after the detachment.
Following the surgery, air was trapped in Arbaugh's head, according to Neuralink executives. In response to this and the detachment issue, the company plans to implement new risk mitigation measures such as skull sculpting and reducing the carbon dioxide concentration in the blood to normal levels for future patients. "In upcoming implants, our plan is to sculpt the surface of the skull very intentionally to minimize the gap under the implant that will put it closer to the brain and eliminate some of the tension on the threads," said Matthew MacDougall, Neuralinks head of neurosurgery.
Arbaugh, who lost the use of much of his body after a 2016 diving accident, remains the only patient to have received the implant. However, Musk expressed his hope to increase the number of participants to the high single digits this year.
Neuralink's implant is being tested with the aim of enabling paralyzed patients to operate digital devices solely through thought. The device functions by using minuscule wires, thinner than a human hair, to capture signals from the brain and convert them into actions. A video published by the company shows Arbaugh using his implant to play online chess and control a computer mouse. After the detachment, he lost the ability to control the mouse, but this functionality has since been restored, according to company executives.
Musk assured during the live stream that the device does not harm the brain. The US Food and Drug Administration had initially raised safety concerns about the device but ultimately approved Neuralink to commence human trials last year.
Neuralink is also developing a new device that it believes will require half the number of electrodes to be implanted in the brain, making it more efficient and powerful. Musk also revealed that the company is working on another product named Blindsight, which aims to restore sight to the blind.
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