Musk's Neuralink: Brain implant trials breaking new ground

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Musk announced the achievement last week, revealing plans for Neuralink to perform 20 to 30 additional procedures this year—a step poised to pave the way for the company’s expansion into international trials.

Neuralink's device is a coin-sized, fully implantable brain-computer interface designed to record and transmit neural signals wirelessly.

Its role is to give people with quadriplegia the ability to control their computers and mobile devices with their thoughts. It features 1,024 electrodes distributed across 64 ultra-thin, flexible threads, enabling high-resolution monitoring of neural activity. The upgraded version includes greater bandwidth and longer battery life.

Mind meets machine

Musk did not disclose the identity of the latest patient who joined Prime Study, the US-based clinical trial. Recent media coverage has focused, however, on Noland Arbaugh, a 30-year-old from Yuma, Arizona, who became the first human recipient of Neuralink's brain-computer interface implant in January 2024.

The implant has significantly improved his quality of life after a 2016 swimming accident left him with quadriplegia. The BCI device, which took two hours to surgically embed, enables Arbaugh to move the cursor on his computer through thought, email his friends, and engage in online activities like playing chess.

While Arbaugh faced challenges with the electrodes detaching from his brain during the initial stages of the clinical trial, after receiving software updates and adjustments from Neuralink's team, the device was restored to full functionality.

Unlocking human potential

Arbaugh has expressed that the implant provides new opportunities for communication and interaction with technology, and continues to work closely with Neuralink's team to optimise the device's performance and explore its potential applications.

"This is a tool to be used - it's not something that we should fear is going to take over the world like Skynet in Terminator; it's something that we will be able to harness and use for the betterment of humanity," he said in an interview with Briar Prestidge—an entrepreneur, speaker, and thought leader known for her work in technology and human augmentation.

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Thinking of the device's upcoming applications, he hypothesised that it would be quite possible for someone in the near future to "go into the hospital paralysed, get the surgery and a couple of days later walk out".

The impact would be life-changing, he added, especially for people who have sufferered strokes or who have ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

"They would never ever have to go through what I've gone through for eight years, nor through what other people have gone through sometimes their entire lives: being injured in war or accidents, or just being born in a certain way. These things could all be solved almost immediately. I think there's so much we don't understand about this technology yet, and about the brain in general, and this is only going to get us closer."

Global trial expansion

What Neuralink has achieved in 20 months since it received US FDA approval to launch its first in-human clinical study is groundbreaking.

The company has established Patient Registry UK to assess preliminary eligibility for future clinical investigations in the UK. This registry allows Neuralink to contact individuals who may be suitable candidates for upcoming studies.

In November 2024 Neuralink received approval from Health Canada to begin recruitment for its first clinical trial in Canada - the Can-Prime Study. The University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto has been selected as the exclusive surgical site for this study in Canada. The procedures will be conducted at UHN's Toronto Western Hospital.

In the same month, Neuralink initiated a companion trial to the Prime Study, to wirelessly connect its brain implant to a robotic arm, exploring the potential for patients to control assistive devices through thought.

Neurotechnology advancements surge

The firm's challenge now lies in staying ahead of the curve while advancing its technology in a competitive environment, with more than 45 brain-computer interface trials currently underway, according to a US database of studies.

Meanwhile, Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, has introduced a brain-computer interface that converts thoughts into text with 91% accuracy. Launched in August last year, the BCI is even smaller than Neuralink's chip.

Synchron, founded by Tom Oxley who has performed more than 1,600 endovascular neurosurgical procedures, is also making strides in the BCI field. Synchron's minimally invasive "stentrode" device has enabled patients to control devices such as Amazon's Alexa using only their thoughts, highlighting the growing potential of neurotechnology.

These developments highlight the rapid progress in BCI research, though some caution against expecting a product rollout anytime soon - that "the current studies are small-scale—they are true experiments, explorations of how the device works and how it can be improved". However, Arbaugh — known as Patient X, the first human recipient of Neuralink's brain-computer interface implant — expressed optimistic speculation about its near-term medical potential:

"This is going to expand in its capabilities and the amount of people it's going to help....it'll get to a place where people can't deny it anymore.... it's going to help too many people..." [....]

"I know Neuralink is planning on opening up a clinic in Austin where people can go in and get these implanted and walk out the same day...it's going to change everything... I don't believe it's that far off."