Neuralink confirms its first human brain chip patient experienced a malfunction

Neuralink has posted an update on its first human patient to receive a brain implant, saying within the first weeks after the medical procedure a problem presented itself.

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For those that don't know, Neuralink is Elon Musk's brain implant company that has constructed a brain-computer interface (BCI). With this new piece of technology, Neuralink believes it will be able to help people suffering from diseases such as paralysis by enabling control of a device with the patient's thoughts. The first paralysis patient to receive the BCI was 29-year-old Nolan Arbaugh, who was shown controlling a desktop mouse cursor and even playing video games such as Mario Kart.

Despite this achievement, Neuralink details a malfunction that occurred with Arbaugh's BCI, with the company writing the brain chips "threads" that are thinner than human hair and record neural signals. These threads, unfortunately, began to retract from Arbaugh's brain. Neuralink's system called Link records neural signals using 1,024 electrodes that are spread across 64 threads. With fewer electrodes to monitor brain signals, Neuralink was prevented from accurately measuring Link's speed/accuracy.

Notably, Neuralink didn't reveal how many specific threads have retracted from Arbaugh's brain tissue, but the company did explain a workaround was conceived. Modifications were made to the recording algorithm for the BCI, which led to improvements in Arbaugh's cursor movements. Most importantly, Neuralink considered removing the implant entirely but decided against it because it hasn't negatively impacted Arbaugh's health or safety.