Next steps for Neuralink
Have you been noticing more Cybertrucks on the streets in your area?
Even if you have, you wouldn’t be alone in seeing more of Elon Musk’s products. The billionaire’s neurotech company, Neuralink, is taking steps to get its brain-computer interface (BCI) technology into more people’s heads.
The latest: Neuralink has received approval to go forth with a feasibility trial for its BCI and paired robotic arm.
- The company is currently conducting its PRIME safety study of the BCI chip.
- Neuralink also just received a go-ahead from Health Canada to launch a trial, marking its international inroads.
What’s new about this: If you’re a dedicated medtech news reader, hearing about a BCI advancement can feel like any other Wednesday.
- Indeed, we even talked about this branch of neurotech just earlier this year, with our discussion of brain privacy rights.
- Even specifically BCIs connected to robotic prosthetics are nothing new. As a refresher, the first such technology was successfully tested in a monkey in 2008. A 2012 Nature study marked the first successful use in human stroke survivors.
- However, what has distinguished Neuralink’s BCI is its size and sleekness. Traditionally, BCIs are clunky and require constant wired connection. The Neuralink chip is wireless.
Neuralink’s human testing journey: From widely-publicized malfunctions to international expansion, here’s a reminder of how far Neuralink’s BCI has come.
- A year ago, the first Neuralink human user, Noland Arbaugh, underwent surgery to receive the brain chip.
- In a video on Musk-owned social media site X, Arbaugh was shown playing chess and other computer games using his mind.
- But just a few weeks later, the device began to malfunction, prompting Neuralink to modify the brain-recording algorithm’s sensitivity before implanting the tech in the second human participant.
- Now, the robotic arm study, according to Neuralink’s announcement, will cross-enroll from the ongoing PRIME study. If successful, it will mark further applicability of the technology.