Neuralink's first attempt at implanting a chip in a human brain was an unexpected failure. The device began detaching from the patient's brain, the company revealed Wednesday.
First Neuralink chip implant runs into trouble PHOTO Collage Twitter
The patient, Noland Arbaugh, underwent surgery in February to have a Neuralink chip attached to his brain. The device's functionality began to decline within a month of receiving the implant, The Guardian notes.
Some of the device's wires, which connect the miniature computer to the brain, had begun to retract.
Neuralink did not disclose why the device partially withdrew from the patient's brain, but said in a blog post that its engineers were able to restore the chip's functionality.
The chip's low capabilities did not appear to endanger Noland, and he was still able to use it, for example, to play a game of chess on a computer using his thoughts, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported for first news about the implant issue. The possibility of extracting the implant was considered.
Noland Arbaugh's implant began experiencing problems in late February, according to Neuralink's blog post, when an undisclosed number of wires in the chip “they retreated from the brain, leading to a net decrease in the number of effective electrodes.”
This lowered the device's bits per second, which is essentially an indicator of how well the implant could perform its tasks.
The implant, promoted as a success
Neuralink, which Elon Musk owns and was valued at about $5 billion last year, has widely touted the success of its first implant, positioning itself as a world leader in brain chip technology.
Although the device is still in its early stages, the company's disclosure brings more attention to the untested and complicated nature of the experimental procedure.
Neuralink implants work by embedding a small container in the skull that houses a processing chip and battery, along with 64 fine wires that connect with brain tissue and interact with the neural signals it sends.
Arbaugh, who is a quadriplegic, can control computer devices such as a keyboard or mouse cursor with his implant.
The patient praised the chip during a demonstration in March and said that “already changed his life”. However he stated that it was not perfect and that “they faced some problems.”
Before Neuralink performed the first human implant, it experimented for years on animals, including sheep, pigs and monkeys.
Regulators launched more investigations into the company's practices at those animal-testing labs earlier this year, saying they found quality control and record-keeping problems at a research facility in California.
