Tech billionaire Elon Musk said his company Neuralink is seeking permission to test its brain implant on humans soon.
In a Show and Tell presentation streamed live Wednesday night, Musk said his team is in the process of asking US regulators to allow them to test the device.
He said he thinks the company should be able to place the implant in a human brain as part of a clinical trial in about six months, although that timeline is far from certain.
Musk’s Neuralink is one of many groups working to connect brains to computers, efforts aimed at helping treat brain diseases, overcoming brain injuries, and other uses.
The field dates back to the 1960s, said Rajesh Rao, co-director of the Center for Neurotechnology at the University of Washington. “But things really took off in the ’90s. And lately we’ve seen a lot of advances, especially in the area of brain-computer communication.”
Rao, who watched Musk’s presentation online, said he doesn’t think Neuralink is ahead of the rest in terms of brain-computer interface achievements. “But… they’re quite ahead in terms of the actual hardware in the devices,” he said.
About the size of a large coin, the Neuralink device is intended to be implanted in the skull, with ultra-thin wires going directly into the brain. Musk said the first two uses in humans are restoring vision and helping people with little or no ability to operate their muscles quickly when using digital devices.
He said he also envisions that in someone with a broken neck, signals could be bypassed from the brain to Neuralink devices in the spinal cord.
“We are confident that there are no physical limitations to enable full bodily functionality,” said Musk, who recently took over Twitter and is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
In experiments by other teams, implanted sensors have enabled paralyzed people to use brain signals to operate computers and move robotic arms. In a 2018 study in the journal PLOS ONE, three participants with paralysis below the neck affecting all of their limbs used an experimental brain-computer interface tested by the BrainGate consortium. The interface records neural activity from a small sensor in the brain to navigate things like email and apps.
A recent study in the journal Nature by scientists from the Swiss research center NeuroRestore identified a type of neuron that was activated by electrical stimulation of the spinal cord and enabled nine patients with chronic spinal cord injury to walk again.
Researchers have also been working on brain and machine interfaces to restore vision. Rao said some companies had developed retinal implants, but Musk’s announcement suggested his team would use signals aimed directly at the brain’s visual cortex, an approach some academic groups are also taking, “with limited success.”
Neuralink spokespersons did not immediately respond to an email to the press office. dr Jaimie Henderson, a professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University and an advisor to Neuralink, said Neuralink differs from some other devices in that it can penetrate deeper layers of the brain. But he added, “There are many different systems that have many different benefits.”
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