Neuralink seeking 2nd person to test its brain chip

Elon Musk’s brain implant startup Neuralink is accepting applications for a second human trial participant to test its device, the billionaire said on X on Friday.

The request comes five months after Neuralink implanted a brain chip into its first human trial participant, 30-year-old Noland Arbaugh, and just a week after the company admitted that his implant had experienced an unexpected problem. Neuralink said that the threads connecting the chip to Arbaugh’s brain had retracted, causing performance issues, although the company said it made adjustments to improve its function.

Still, Arbaugh says the implant — which allows him to control a computer cursor with his brain — has changed his life. Arbaugh has been a quadriplegic since 2016 following a diving accident.

“I didn’t have anything to wake up for in the morning, and this has changed that for me,” Arbaugh told “Good Morning America” in an interview that aired Friday. “I was just very happy that I would be a part of something that I believe is so monumental. This is the next step forward of helping people with paralysis.”

Now, Neuralink is seeking more people like Arbaugh to test out its brain chip. “If you have quadriplegia and want to explore new ways of controlling your computer, we invite you to participate in our clinical trial,” the company said on X.

Ultimately, Neuralink’s ambition is to use implants to connect human brains to computers to help, for example, paralyzed people to control smartphones or computers or blind people to regain sight. Like existing brain-machine interfaces, the company’s implant would collect electrical signals sent out by the brain and interpret them as actions.

The current trial participants will be part of what Neuralink is calling its PRIME Study, short for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface. The intent is to study the safety of its implant and surgical robot and to test the functionality of its device, the company said in a 2023 blog post.

The company says it is enrolling trial patients who have “limited or no ability to use both hands due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).”

Trial patients have chips surgically placed in the part of the brain that controls the intention to move. The chip then records and sends brain signals to an app, with the initial goal being “to grant people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone,” Neuralink previously explained.

About a month after the operation, Musk said Arbaugh could control a computer mouse with his brain. Neuralink later posted a video showing Arbaugh using only his brain to play chess on a computer.

But after his device developed an unexpected issue stunting its data processing speeds and performance, Arbaugh told “Good Morning America” that he “cried afterwards.”

“It was very, very hard to give up all of the amazing things that I was able to do,” he said.

However, Neuralink says the issue was part of its learning process.

“The reason we do clinical trials and early feasibility trials is to uncover these sorts of issues as early as possible before they get marketed,” DJ Seo, who co-founded Neuralink with Musk, told “Good Morning America.” “We rolled up our sleeves and found various different ways for Noland to be able to recover his performance, which we have successfully been able to do.”

Consumers will not have widespread access to the technology anytime soon. Before Neuralink’s brain implants hit the broader market, they’ll need broader regulatory approval. (SD-Agencies)

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【光标】

guāngbiāo

cursor

a line on a computer screen that moves to show the point where work is being done

【四肢瘫痪】

Sìzhī tānhuàn

quadriplegic

permanently unable to move or feel your arms or legs, usually because of a severe injury to the spine

亿万富翁埃隆•马斯克的大脑植入初创公司Neuralink周五在社交平台X上表示，该公司正在招募第二名患者，以测试其设备。

五个月前，Neuralink为30岁的诺兰•阿博植入了大脑芯片，这是他们的第一位人体试验者。而就在一周前，该公司承认阿博的芯片出现了一个意想不到的问题。Neuralink 公司说，连接芯片和阿博大脑的连接线松了导致了性能问题，不过该公司表示已经进行了调整来改善功能。

尽管如此，阿博仍表示，植入芯片让他能用大脑控制电脑光标，改变了他的生活。2016年的一次潜水事故让阿博四肢瘫痪了。

他在周五播出的《早安美国》中说：“之前我早上醒来没有任何事情可做，手术改变了我的生活。很高兴能参与到这件非常有意义的事情中来，帮助瘫痪患者有更好的未来。”

现在，Neuralink正征寻更多人来测试大脑芯片。该公司在X上说：“如果你四肢瘫痪，想试试控制电脑的新方法，我们邀请你参加临床试验。”

Neuralink的最终目标是利用植入物将人脑与电脑连接起来，帮助瘫痪患者控制智能手机或电脑，帮助盲人重见光明。与现有的脑机接口一样，该公司的植入体将收集大脑发出的电信号，并将其解读为动作。

招募受试的项目是Neuralink公司PRIME研究的一部分，PRIME全称是精确机器人植入脑机接口。该公司在2023年的一篇博客文章中说，这项研究要测试植入物和手术机器人的安全性、以及设备的功能。公司表示，它正在招募“因颈椎损伤或肌萎缩性脊髓侧索硬化症（ALS）导致双手使用能力受限或丧失”的试验患者。

通过手术将芯片植入患者大脑控制运动的部分。Neuralink公司此前解释说，芯片记录大脑信号并将其发送到一个应用程序中，初始目标是“让人们仅凭意念就能控制电脑光标或键盘”。

马斯克说，手术大约一个月后阿博可以用大脑控制电脑鼠标。Neuralink随后发布了一段视频，显示阿博用意念控制在电脑上下棋。后来设备出现意外导致数据处理速度变慢、性能受阻后，阿博告诉《早安美国》，他“哭了”。他说：“拥有这种神奇的能力后又失去它是非常非常痛苦的。”

不过，Neuralink公司表示，遇到问题是探索未知的一部分。“我们之所以要做临床试验和早期可行性试验，就是为了在产品上市之前尽早发现问题，”与马斯克共同创办 Neuralink的DJ Seo告诉《早安美国》。“我们马不停蹄地尝试了各种不同的方法，让阿博的芯片能够恢复性能，目前一切顺利。”这项技术不会很快普及，距离普通消费者还很遥远。Neuralink的大脑植入技术需要获得更广泛的监管批准后才能进入大众消费市场。

(Translated by Debra)