Neuralink’s first in-human brain implant has experienced a malfunction
Since Neuralink implanted its first device in a human, CEO Elon Musk has been keeping us updated on the patient's well-being through his posts on his also-owned platform X.
And the news has been nothing short of positive.
The company streamed a live video with Arbaugh as he used the BCI in March, and Neuralink said in an April blog post that the surgery went 'extremely well.'
BCI is Neuralink's brain-computer interface that could eventually help patients with paralysis control external technology using only their minds.
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29-year-old Noland Arbaugh is now able to use his mind to control a computer, send texts and even play Mario Kart.
Despite the gruesome procedure as to how the chip, called Link, is implanted (it involves drilling a hole through your skull), there have been no hiccups... until now.
In the following weeks after the surgery, the device’s functionality began to decrease within the month after his implant.
The cause was found to be some of the device’s threads retracting, reducing the number of effective electrodes. This overall inhibited the company’s ability to measure the Link’s speed and accuracy.
Neuralink did not provide any specific details as to why the device partly retracted from Arbaugh’s brain but did mention that its engineers have refined the implant to restore its functionality.
Fortunately for Arbaugh, his decreased capabilities did not appear to endanger him in any way.
According to the Wall Street Journal which first reported the issue, Arbaugh is still able to play chess on a computer using his thoughts.
Although there were discussions to remove the implant after the issue was found, these were quickly disregarded when his functionality came back.
The medtech start-up has since said the patient is using the company’s BCI system for around eight hours a day during the week, and often as many as 10 hours a day on the weekends.
Arbaugh described Link as like a 'luxury overload' in that it has helped him to 'reconnect with the world.'
This incident has drawn more attention to the experimental phase that this advanced medtech technology is in and Neuralink continues to promote the success of its first implant,