Neuralink, a startup owned by Elon Musk, disclosed on Wednesday that the first implant in a human experienced a malfunction when several threads recording neural activity retracted from the brain. This occurred in the weeks following surgery in late January, where Neuralink hardware was placed in the brain of Noland Arbaugh, a 29-year-old individual with quadriplegia, as stated in a company blog post.

The retraction of threads reduced the number of effective electrodes and hindered Arbaugh’s ability to control a computer cursor with his brain. Neuralink addressed this issue by modifying the recording algorithm to be more sensitive to neural signals, improving techniques for translating these signals into cursor movements, and enhancing the user interface.

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According to Neuralink, these adjustments led to a significant and sustained improvement in bits-per-second, a measure of cursor control speed and accuracy, surpassing Arbaugh’s initial performance. Although the problem doesn’t seem to endanger Arbaugh’s safety, Neuralink reportedly discussed the possibility of removing his implant.

However, the company informed the Food and Drug Administration that it has a solution for the issue encountered with Arbaugh’s implant. The implantation occurred just over 100 days ago. In the blog post, Neuralink highlighted Arbaugh’s ability to play online computer games, browse the internet, livestream, and use other applications solely by controlling a cursor with his mind.

Source: The Hill