Neuralink implants brain chip into second patient

In an eight-hour podcast released late on August 2, Elon Musk said the patient suffered a spinal cord injury similar to the first patient, who was paralyzed in a diving accident.

The billionaire owner of the company added that the second patient’s 400 brain implants were working. On its website, Neuralink claims that its implant used 1,024 electrodes.

“It seems to be going extremely well with the second implant. There are a lot of signals, a lot of electrodes. Everything is working very well,” Musk told podcast host Lex Fridman.

Neuralink's device has allowed the first patient to play video games, browse the internet, post on social media and move the cursor on a laptop. Photo: Reuters

Neuralink is testing a brain chip device designed to help people with spinal cord injuries. The device has allowed the first patient to play video games, browse the internet, post on social media and move a cursor on a laptop.

Musk did not say when Neuralink performed the second patient surgery. Musk said he hopes Neuralink will provide implants to eight more patients this year as part of a clinical trial.

The first patient, Noland Arbaugh, was also interviewed on the podcast along with three Neuralink executives, who provided details about how the implant and robot-performed surgery work.

Before Arbaugh got the implant in January, he had to use a computer with a stick in his mouth to touch the device's screen. With the implant, Arbaugh now just thinks about what he wants to happen on the computer screen and the device makes it happen. He said the device has given him some independence and reduced his dependence on caregivers.

Arbaugh initially encountered problems with the tiny wires in the implant shrinking, causing the electrodes used to measure brain signals to drop dramatically. Neuralink learned of the issue from animal testing and restored Arbaugh’s ability to measure brain signals by making changes that included tweaking the algorithm to be more sensitive.

Ngoc Anh (according to Reuters)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/neuralink-cay-ghep-chip-nao-cho-benh-nhan-thu-hai-post306423.html