The approval comes a few weeks after the first patient experienced issues with the implant. The company has proposed fixes to the issue, including implanting the device threads 8 millimeters into the brains’ motor cortex, compared to the 3-to-5 millimeters implanted into the first patient.
In March, Neuralink introduced 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh as the first patient to have received its brain chip implant. The neurotechnology company posted a video on Mr. Musk’s X platform, showing the patient, who was left paralyzed after a diving accident in 2016, playing chess on a computer, directing a cursor to play the game by thinking. In May, the company said that a number of threads on the implant retracted from the patient’s brain, causing the implant to lose part of its functionality.
Neuralink hopes to implant a second patient sometime in June and aims to implant 10 people with the device this year.
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