Neuralink, the American company owned by billionaire Elon Musk, announced that it had fixed a problem in a brain chip that temporarily reduced the ability of its first patient to move a computer mouse cursor by thinking.
In March, the company published a video showing a quadriplegic man playing chess on a computer, controlling the game with his mind using a chip implanted in his brain.
Noland Arbo (29 years old), who suffered from quadriplegia as a result of a car accident, underwent the implantation of the N1 brain implant invented by Neuralink, which is the first implantation of a similar device in a human body.
The company said: “In the weeks following the operation, a number of wires in the brain malfunctioned, which led to a clear decrease in the number of effective electrodes.”
The wires are lined with electrodes that pick up nerve signals, and Arbo’s ability to control the computer mouse cursor on the screen is diminished.
The company continued: “To solve this defect, we changed the recording algorithm to be more sensitive to signals, and improved the techniques for translating these signals into mouse cursor movements,” noting that the control capabilities through the implant “currently exceed the performance of the initial Arbo.”
The California-based company explained that Arbo now uses the implant 70 hours a week, half of which is in tests related to clinical trials, and the other half in personal activities, from playing video games to taking lessons to learn foreign languages.
Arbault was quoted as saying in a post: “For eight years I was unable to engage in these activities and now I don’t even know where to start.”
Neuralink received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a year ago.
The implant invented by the company was implanted in a macaque monkey, which succeeded in playing the video game “Pong” without a controller or keyboard.
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