Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain technology company, announced in a blog post that the gadget it implanted in its first human patient encountered technical problems.
According to the business, some of the electrode-studded threads that are inserted into the brain tissue started to retract from that tissue in the weeks after patient Noland Arbaugh’s surgery in January, which prevented the device from functioning as intended.
News of the issue was first published by The Wall Street Journal.
A number of software tweaks, according to Neuralink, “produced a rapid and sustained improvement that has now superseded Noland’s initial performance,” making up for the retraction.
The company stated that it is now working on enhancing the device’s text entry and cursor control, with plans to eventually expand to include the usage of real-world equipment like wheelchairs and robotic arms.
According to professionals in the area of brain implants, the potential cause of complications might be that the threads attach to a device that is located inside the skull bone rather than on the surface of the brain tissue.
“One thing engineers and scientists fail to appreciate is how much the brain moves within the intracrainial space,” Eric Leuthardt, a neurosurgeon at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, ponted out. “Just nodding your head or abruptly moving it can lead to perturbations of several millimeters.”
According to Matt Angle, CEO of rival brain-implant business Paradromics Inc., brain implants are typically positioned directly on top of the brain tissue itself, moving “like a boat on the water.” Retraction-prone threads “are not normal for a brain implant,” he stated.
Neuralink conducted considerable testing on animals before implanting the device in Arbaugh, a quadriplegic. Leuthardt noted that one possible problem might be that, due to the smaller size of an animal’s brain, there may be less movement of the electrodes than in a human’s brain.
The report comes at a time when Neuralink is looking to implant the device in more people. Any further problems might lead to delays in getting the approval of the Food and Drug Administration .
