The Neuralink company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, has already implanted the first brain chip in a person, the businessman said on his social network account X. “The first person received a Neuralink implant.” yesterday and he is recovering well.wrote Musk.
“First results show a promising discovery of neuronal spikes,” he added. News of the first Neuralink implant in humans comes nine months after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the company approval to begin conducting human trials.
The function of the implant will be “reading” brain activity. to be able to transmit commands that help restore some severely damaged brain functions after a heart attack or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which causes severe damage to the ability to communicate.
Until now, brain implants have only been developed in one direction: from the brain to the outside (generally a computer processing the signals), but the Neuralink project aims to be able to transmit information in the other direction as well. Towards the brain.
Neuralink is developing two types of implants in parallel: one to restore vision “even to those who have never had it,” and another to restore basic bodily functions to people paralyzed by spinal cord damage.