The patient is recovering well
The technology tycoon made a historic announcement Elon Musk, as it announced that the first brain chip implant was successfully implanted of the company Neuralink in humans. As stated in a post on his platform, “X”, Musk, the patient is recovering well one day after operation and initial results detected promising neuronal spikes, or nerve impulses.
The company’s goal, as it states, is to connect human brains to computers, helping to treat complex neurological conditions. Some rival companies have already implanted similar devices, as reported by the BBC.
Utah-based Blackrock Neurotech implanted the first of many brain-computer interfaces in 2004. Precision Neuroscience, founded by a co-founder of Neuralink, also aims to help people with paralysis. And his implant looks like a very thin one piece of film on the surface of the brain and can be implanted through a “cranial microslit,” which, he says, “is a very simple procedure.”
Musk’s company received permission to test the chip on humans from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May, after several earlier battles to win the controversial approval.
The first human received an implant from @Neuralink yesterday and is recovering well.
Initial results show promising neuron spike detection.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2024
That gave the “green light” to start the six-year study in which a robot is used to surgically place 64 flexible threads, finer than a human hair, into a part of the brain that controls “intention to move,” according to the Neuralink.
The company says these threads allow for experimentation implant which is powered by a battery that can be charged wirelessly, records and transmits brain signals wirelessly to an app that decodes how the person intends to move.
Posting on ‘X’, the social media platform he owns, formerly known as Twitter, Musk said that Neuralink’s first product will be called “Telepathy”. “Telepathy,” he said, would allow “control of your phone or computer, and through them almost any device, simply by thought.” “Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs“, added the tycoon.
Referring to the late British scientist, who had motor neurone disease, he added: “Imagine if the Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or an auctioneer. That’s the goal».
Two separate recent scientific studies in the US used implants to monitor brain activity as a person tries to speak, which could then be decoded to help them communicate.
