Neuralink Announces Approval to Test Brain Implants on Humans

The start-up Neuralink, one of Elon Musk's companies, announced Thursday, May 25, 2023 on Twitter that it had received the approval of the US health authorities to test its connected brain implants on humans.

A brain implant presented by Neuralink in August 2020 (Illustration image). © Neuralink via AFP

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This is an important first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people. ", said the Californian company on its Twitter account, specifying that "recruitment for clinical trials is not yet open".

Neuralink designs connected devices to implant in the brain to communicate with computers directly through thought. They must first be used to help people who are paralyzed or suffering from neurological diseases. The start-up then wants to make these implants safe and reliable enough to fall under elective (comfort) surgery – people could then pay a few thousand dollars to equip their brains with computing power. For Elon Musk, these chips must allow humanity to achieve a "symbiosis with AI", in his words of 2020, pronounced at the company's annual conference.

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We are now confident that Neuralink's device is ready for humans, so the timing depends on the FDA approval process," he said in late November on Twitter, a month after buying the social network.

Predictions to be taken with a grain of salt

Elon Musk, boss of Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX is used to risky predictions, especially about the range of Tesla electric cars. In July 2019, he estimated that Neuralink could carry out its first tests on individuals in 2020.

For now, coin-sized prototypes have been implanted into the skulls of animals. Many monkeys are able to "play" video games or "type" words on a screen, simply by following the movement of the cursor on the screen. At the end of November, the start-up had also taken stock of its latest advances in the design of a robot-surgeon and the development of other implants, to be installed in the spinal cord or eyes, to restore mobility or vision.

Other companies are working on controlling computers through thought, such as Synchron, which announced in July 2022 that it had implemented the first brain-machine interface in the United States. "We are building technology that can directly broadcast the thoughts of people who have lost the ability to move or speak because of illness or injury," says Thomas Oxley, the founder and boss of this start-up, in a video on his website. Several patients test the implant, which has been inserted into blood vessels, to be able to compose emails or go on the internet thanks to their eyes and brain.

" READ ALSO – Guest France - Neuroscience: how a paraplegic was able to walk again thanks to implants

(With AFP

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