Initial Neuralink Brain Implant in Human Encountered Issues Within a Month of Implantation

The first brain implant by Elon Musk-owned Neuralink isn’t functioning the way it was designed to.

The issue was first investigated by The Wall Street Journal, though after the company was contacted by the Journal for comment, it posted about the issue on its public blog.

Noland Arbaugh, an Arizona native who was paralyzed in a serious diving accident while working as a summer camp counselor in 2016, became in January the first human recipient of the “Telepathy” brain-computer interface developed by Neuralink.

At the time, he was said to be doing just fine after the surgery.

However, in February, the implanted chip started having some problems.

“In the weeks following the surgery, a number of threads retracted from the brain, resulting in a net decrease in the number of effective electrodes,” Neuralink wrote on its website.

That lowered the ability of Arbaugh to control a computer cursor, measured in bits-per-second, from about 8.0 BPS to less that 4 BPS.

In response, Neuralink made changes to the software’s “recording algorithm” to make it “more sensitive to neural population signals.”

The company also “improved the techniques” used to translate Arbaugh’s brain signals into movements of a computer display cursor controlled through the chip, and “enhanced the user interface.”

According to the company blog, those changes were sufficient not only to restore the chip’s functionality, but also to improve it beyond its initial performance — perhaps raising the question for some as to why the enhancements hadn’t already been made.

“Our current work is focused on pushing cursor control performance to the same level as that of able-bodied individuals, and on expanding functionality to include text entry,” the company said in its blog entry.

“In the future we intend to extend the Link’s functionality to the physical world to enable control of robotic arms, wheelchairs, and other technologies that may help increase independence for people living with quadriplegia,” Neuralink added.

The company has not disclosed the reason that the threads came out, according to the Journal, and may in fact not be certain about the reason.

The Journal reported that the company had investigated the possibility that air trapped inside Arbaugh’s skull after his surgery had contributed to the issue.

Neuralink also considered removing the implant, but as the condition hasn’t seemed to pose any risk to Arbaugh, it was left in, according to unnamed sources cited by the Journal.

The company has reportedly told the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that it believed it could correct the issue.

If Arbaugh continues to safely benefit from the implanted device, Neuralink hopes to try it on two more people “in the coming months,” and on a total of 10 before the end of the year, the Journal reported.