Biotech & Medicine

Problems With Contacts In Neuralink Implants Were Already Observed During Experiments With Animals

Neuralink Elon Musk has long known about problems with contacts in brain implants, sources told Reuters. The company implanted its chip in the first person in January. On May 9, Neuralink announced that the implant’s wires had moved away from the patient’s brain. According to Reuters sources, the company identified similar problems at the animal testing stage, but considered the risk to be quite low.

The loss of the ability to read brain impulses from some of the 64 contacts in the case of Noland Arbaugh, who became the first volunteer to undergo implantation of this device in January of this year, was temporarily resolved by Neuralink specialists by software compensation for the sensitivity of the electrodes remaining in place. It is assumed that as a result of natural movements of the brain inside the skull, some of the electrodes implanted in the cerebral cortex lost contact with it. So far, Neuralink specialists have been able to compensate for these losses without repeated surgery, but no one can guarantee that after the implant loses its ability to receive signals through other electrodes, the problem will not become irreversible.

The design of the electrodes themselves does not provide for their rigid fixation, since it was developed to avoid injury to surrounding tissues, as well as the possibility of removing the implant without any special consequences for the patient. This now comes at the cost of the possibility of displacement of electrodes from the cerebral cortex and the concomitant loss of connection.

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