In a setback for Elon Musk’s brain technology company, Neuralink Corp., the device it implanted in its first human patient has had mechanical issues, the company wrote in a blog post. Elon Musk today wrote in a tweet, “Successful 100 days with first human implant of Neuralink”.
In the weeks following the January surgery on patient Noland Arbaugh, some of the electrode-studded threads that sit in the brain tissue began to retract from that tissue, the company said, resulting in the device not working properly. A few of local media sources earlier reported news of the malfunction.
Neuralink said it compensated for that retraction through a series of software fixes, which “produced a rapid and sustained improvement that has now superseded Noland’s initial performance.” People who work in the brain-implant field said the complications may have arisen from the fact that the threads connect to a device that sits within the skull bone, rather than on the surface of the brain tissue.
The company said that it’s currently working on improving text entry for the device as well as cursor control. The company aims to extend the same to the use of physical world devices such as robotic arms and wheelchairs.
Eric Leuthardt, a neurosurgeon at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, told Bloomberg, “One thing engineers and scientists fail to appreciate is how much the brain moves within the intracrainial space. Just nodding your head or abruptly moving it can lead to perturbations of several millimeters.”
Join our whatsapp group for Latest updates