Elon Musk’s company Neuralink says it wants to cure patients of neurological diseases. picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS | John Raoux
Parts of the Neuralink brain chip implant have detached from the brain of the first human patient. The company then made changes that are said to have improved the functions of the chip. Neuralink plans to implant 10 devices into other human patients by the end of this year.
This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Business Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by a real editor.
Neuralink’s brain chip implant works – but some of the chip’s parts have become detached from the brain of the first human patient.
Elon Musk’s company shared the current status of development in a blog post on Wednesday, explaining that some parts of the patient’s brain had become detached a few weeks after the operation. This made the implant less effective.
The “Link” device allows the patient to move a computer cursor through their thoughts. A previous blog post said the process involved more than 1,000 electrodes in the device and at least 64 threads, each thinner than a strand of human hair.
Neuralink measures the speed and accuracy of cursor control using bits per second (BPS). Wednesday’s blog post states that a higher BPS value means stronger cursor control.
Chip less effective due to malfunction
Retracting some of the threads caused the electrodes in the device to be less effective, Neuralink said. The company said it has since made improvements, which in turn “resulted in rapid and sustained improvement in BPS.”
Neuralink announced in a livestream on X in March that 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh, who was paralyzed below the shoulders after a diving accident in 2016, was the first person to receive the implant in January.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported that Neuralink was considering removing the patient’s implant entirely.
In February, Musk said in an X Spaces session that “progress is good” and that “the patient appears to have fully recovered.” The Journal reported that Neuralink plans to implant 10 devices into other human patients by the end of this year.
In a Neuralink session posted on X in March, Arbaugh said it took five months from applying to participate in Neuralink’s human trials to brain surgery, which took less than two hours. Since the implantation, he has used it to play video games, including Mario Kart, post on social media and play chess.
Neuralink did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider US.
Here you go Original text on Business Insider US.