The first patient to live with Elon Musk’s Neuralink ‘brain chip’ implant wants the world to know how ‘surprising’ and ‘rewarding’ his clinical trial with this technology has been.
Just four months ago, Noland Arbaugh, 30, went under the knife to undergo experimental surgery that would allow him to control computers with his mind.
“I’m very excited to move forward,” Arbaugh, who has been paralyzed from the fourth vertebra in his neck down since college, said of his role in the Neuralink human trial.
But while the tech company’s brain-computer interface has allowed him to race his stepfather in Nintendo’s Mario Kart, navigate with a computer cursor, and more (all with just his thoughts), technical hurdles still plague the functioning of the brain chip.
A report on Arbaugh’s Neuralink trial said that about 85 percent of the chip’s tendril-like connections to his brain have become loose, forcing Neuralink staff to restructure the system on its software side, while the FDA approves trials on second patient.
The first patient to live with Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip implant wants the world to know how “amazing” and “rewarding” his clinical trial with the technology has been. “I’m very excited to move forward,” said Noland Arbaugh, 30 (above), of his role in the Neuralink human trial.
But while the tech company’s brain-computer interface has allowed Arbaugh to race his stepfather in Nintendo’s Mario Kart (as he plays here, above), navigate a computer cursor and more, all with just his thoughts, technical obstacles still plague the functioning of the brain chip.
According to Arbaugh, who told his story to New York TimesThe natural movements of your brain, floating in the ‘cerebrospinal fluid’ that protects you from injury, have slipped these electrode-like connections over time.
However, Neuralink sources told Wall Street Journal The malfunction may be due to air becoming trapped in his skull during surgery – a condition known as pneumocephalus that can cause seizures, brain abscesses and death if left untreated.
The report stated that the condition caused the threads to become dislodged, almost resulting in the removal of the implant.
But Musk’s company revealed this month that it plans to implant threads that penetrate deeper into the brain of its second human patient, plans that have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Neuralink’s brain-computer interface consists of a computer chip connected to small flexible threads that are sewn into the brain via a “sewing machine-like” robot.
With the help of medical professionals and company staff, the robot removes a small piece of the skull, connects these thread-like electrodes to certain areas of the brain and sutures the hole, with the only visible remains being a scar from the incision.
Neuralink’s brain-computer interface consists of a computer chip connected to small flexible threads sewn into the brain. A ‘stitching robot’ (above) removes a small piece of the skull, connects thread-like electrodes to certain areas of the brain and sutures the hole.
Neuralink’s human trials for its brain-computer interface hope to evaluate the safety of the implant
Musk has said that this procedure lasts only 30 minutes, will not require general anesthesia, and patients will be able to return home the same day.
But Dr. Lee Miller, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University, noted that the brain’s immune defenses have also posed challenges for brain chip implants like Neuralink.
Researchers, Dr. Miller said, have seen brains develop scar tissue around sensor implants, inhibiting chip connectivity, among other issues.
Brains have even rejected entire units that were connected to the brain by a network of tiny needles, according to Dr. Miller, a rehabilitation medicine researcher.
Although Neuralink’s software fixes required Arbaugh to learn new methods of clicking and navigating a cursor on a computer screen, the Arizona resident said it was still an improvement over life before Neuralink.
In the years after being paralyzed in a swimming accident, Arbaugh had tried a variety of devices that ultimately failed to provide a long-term solution to his mobility needs.
Arbaugh, as he looked before a swimming accident left him paralyzed from the neck down.
Arbaugh with loved ones
Before Neuralink, Apple’s Siri voice assistant on Arbaugh’s iPad had proven to be the most reliable method for composing text-based written messages, calling your friends, and completing other life tasks.
After the installation of the Neuralink implant in January, and after an intense training period with the company’s staff, Arbaugh managed to break a world record for speed and precision in 2017 while controlling a computer cursor with his mind.
“I thought, once these restraints come off, I’m going to fly,” Arbaugh recalled. “It was very, very cool.”
While he said the loss of 85 percent of this interconnectivity with the brain implant has been difficult and disappointing, he emphasized that he is proud to play a role in improving these advances. medical technologies.
“I just want to be with everyone on this journey,” Arbaugh said, adding that she hopes Neuralink and similar devices will one day help others regain lost speech, vision or movement.
A neurophysiologist, Dr. Cristin Welle, who helped start the FDA program that reviews medical devices like implants for approval, said Neuralink’s plans to install deeper connections between its chips and the human brain may run into other biological obstacles.
After the installation of the Neuralink implant in January, and after an intense training period with the company’s staff, Arbaugh managed to break a world record in 2017 for speed and precision by controlling a computer cursor with his mind.
Dr. Welle, who works at the University of Colorado said deeper tendril strands can still slide out of place or even rub against the surface of the brain, where they could potentially increase the amount of scar tissue formed. – increase signal loss between the brain and the chip, among other possible health problems.
He suggested that Neuralink’s soft connective thread design may need to go back to the drawing board.
“It may be the case that a fully flexible device is not a long-term solution,” Dr. Welle said. “It’s hard to know.”
Regardless, Neuralink’s first human patient still has high hopes for the future of the implant and says he expects broader, sci-fi applications of brain-computer interfaces after the technology has helped those most in need.
“Then it can be dedicated to allowing people to improve their capabilities,” Arbaugh said, “as long as we don’t give up our humanity along the way.”
