It was September 19, 2023 when Neuralink, the company of entrepreneur Elon Musk who works on brain-computer interfaces, informed that he had started recruiting people with ALS or paralysis, quadriplegia caused by a spinal cord lesion, for the first human clinical trial of a chip to be implanted in the brain.
Tonight the announcement from the tycoon himself: “The first human received an implant yesterday and is recovering well. Initial results show promising detection of neuronal spikes. Neuralink's first product it's called 'Telepathy' – added Musk -. It allows you to control your phone or computer, and through them, almost any device, simply by thinking. The initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs.”
How does the chip work?
But how do Neuralink chips work and what does the ongoing study consist of? The company, speaking about the trial, explained that it had received approval from an independent review committee, and from the first hospital site involved, to be able to begin recruiting for its first clinical trial in humans, called 'Prime' ( Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface). “A groundbreaking experimental medical device study for our fully implantable wireless brain-computer interface,” he described it. Objective: to evaluate “safety of the implant and surgical robot” and “initial functionality of the interface, to allow people with paralysis to control external devices with their thoughts”.
Musk, to give an idea, once again quotes the famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who was suffering from a degenerative motor neuron disease, to explain the potential of this instrument: “Imagine if Hawking had had it at his disposal”, he is the message. He could “communicate faster than a typist.” But the chip must be implanted and for this reason Neuralink relies on a surgical robot whose mission is to position the ultra-thin and flexible wires of the implant in a region of the brain that controls the intention of movement.
Once positioned, the aesthetically invisible system – highlights the company – was designed to “record and transmit brain signals wirelessly to an App that decodes the intention of the movement. The initial objective is to guarantee the ability to control the cursor or keyboard of a computer using only your mind.”
The Prime study is being conducted under the exemption for experimental devices granted by the US regulatory body FDA in May 2023 and, Neuralink assures, “represents an important step”. Applicants must be “at least 22 years of age.” Trial times? “6 years” are estimated for completion of the study.
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