Neuralink said it has received a green light for a new clinical study to test the feasibility of connecting its brain-computer interface chip with a robotic arm.
The company said it would allow severely paralyzed patients currently signed up to receive the implant through its PRIME safety trial to also cross-enroll in a new study, named CONVOY. PRIME includes volunteers who have lost the use of their hands due to a cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the neurodegenerative condition known as ALS.
“This is an important first step towards restoring not only digital freedom, but also physical freedom,” Neuralink posted on X.
Elon Musk, the owner of both of those companies, earlier this year also proposed one day connecting Neuralink’s wireless N1 chip with parts of the humanoid Optimus robot being developed elsewhere in his portfolio, at the automaker Tesla.
Neuralink announced in January that it had successfully implanted its device in the company’s first human patient, and later demonstrated video of the user using his mind to play a computer game of chess, in addition to operating a cursor to play music and control other programs. A second study participant was disclosed in August.
But this year the company also reported that its first patient had seen some of the hair-thin electrodes retract from the tissue, about 100 days after the initial procedure.
This led to a decrease in the number of electrodes effectively recording brain activity, but Neuralink said that a software update was able to make the system more sensitive to movement commands, despite recording less data over time. The N1 implant includes 1,024 electrodes distributed among 64 threads, inserted down into the gray matter by the company’s R1 surgical robot.
Meanwhile, earlier this month Reuters reported that Neuralink received a green light from Health Canada to conduct a safety and feasibility study within the country.