In the announcement made in a press release on Tuesday (19), Neuralink said the experiment will assess the safety of its implants and surgical robots in people with quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or lateral sclerosis. An application form has been released by the company, which did not provide details on how many participants will be enrolled.
Neuralink: What is known so far about Elon Musk’s brain chip.
According to Neuralink, the experiment, called PRIME (short for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface), aims to initially allow people with paralysis to control a computer cursor or keyboard using only their thoughts. Approval for the human clinical study was granted in May by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the health regulatory agency. During the experiment, a prototype of the N1 implant will be surgically introduced by the R1 robot into an area of the brain that controls movement intention. From there, the chip, consisting of ultra-thin and flexible wires, will transmit the captured brain signals to an app capable of decoding movement intention. Participants will then be asked to use the N1 Implant and the app to control a computer and provide feedback on the system.
Although it has announced that it is recruiting volunteers for the study, Neuralink has not yet set a date to start implanting brain chips in humans. According to the company, the experiment will take six years to complete. Clinical follow-up and reimbursement for related expenses will also be provided to volunteers.
Neuralink, founded in 2016 by Elon Musk, is a neurotechnology company focused on developing interfaces that establish a direct connection between the human brain and computers. The idea behind the venture is to enable people to interact with technology more quickly and efficiently, almost symbiotically.
Before obtaining approval to test its devices on humans, Neuralink began to be investigated for violations of animal welfare during experiments. The company’s team reportedly complained that the tests had been conducted carelessly and hastily, causing unnecessary suffering and deaths. The complaint was filed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in December of last year for violations of laws governing the treatment of animals in tests conducted by researchers.
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