Her implant, the size of a coin, had already been placed in the brain of a macaque monkey, which managed to play the video game ‘Pong’ without a controller or keyboard.
THE Elon Musk announced yesterday, Monday, that the start-up company Neuralinkwhich she co-founded, placed its first brain implant in a patient on Sunday, an operation that has already been performed repeatedly by other companies and researchers.
THE Neuralinkbased in Fremont (California), a suburb of San Francisco, had received the green light from the FDA, the US regulatory authority for drugs and medical devices, in May.
Her implant, the size of a coin, had already been placed in the brain of a macaque monkey, which managed to play the video game ‘Pong’ without a controller or keyboard.
“First results show promising neuron activity”Elon Musk wrote on the X platform about the implant in a patient.
THE Neuralinkwhich was founded in 2016, is by no means the first to place a brain implant in a human.
In September, Dutch company Onward had announced that it is testing the connection of a brain implant with another that stimulates the spinal cord, with the aim of enabling a quadriplegic patient to regain mobility.
As of 2019, researchers of the Clinatec institute of Grenoble had presented an implant that, once placed, allows a quadriplegic to move an exoskeleton, as well as move the arms or walk.
THE Neuralink collected recently 323 million dollars from investors in two installments, in August and November.
THE Neuralink she says she also wants to make paralyzed patients walk again, but also restore sight to the blind, and even cure psychiatric illnesses such as depression.
THE Elon Musk he also aspires to offer his implant to everyone to enable better communication with computers and limit what he says is the “threat to our civilization” posed by artificial intelligence.