Elon Musk’s Neuralink Shows First Patient Using Its Brain Implant

• protruding
• stent
• debilitating condition

Elon Musk’s Neuralink Shows First Patient Using Its Brain Implant

Man paralyzed in diving accident moves computer cursor with his thoughts

By Rolfe Winkler  and Alexa Corse

Updated March 20, 2024 9:11 pm ET  Listen (4 min)

Neuralink’s livestream with implant patient Noland Arbaugh. PHOTO: NEURALINK

 

Elon Musk’s Neuralink introduced the first patient to receive its brain-computer implant, a 29-year-old diving-accident victim who showed during a livestream that he can now move a computer cursor using the device.

 

In a nine-minute presentation streamed on Musk’s X platform Wednesday, Neuralink showed Noland Arbaugh directing the cursor around a screen to play a game of chess. Arbaugh said it feels like “using the force on a cursor,” referring to a concept from movies such as “Star Wars.” He said his surgery went well and he left the hospital after one day.

Moving a computer cursor isn’t a big technical leap for brain-computer interfaces. An older brain chip first implanted in a human in 2004 also helped a paralyzed person move a cursor with only their thoughts. But the older chip must be attached to a device on the outside of the brain to transmit data, requiring wires protruding through the skin.

Neuralink’s device transmits data wirelessly, and it can be used at home, outside of a laboratory setting.

Another notable feature of Neuralink’s presentation was that Arbaugh was multitasking: playing chess while speaking about his experience getting the implant. Prior demonstrations of brain-computer interfaces have required dedicated attention to a particular task.

Arbaugh lost all movement beneath his shoulders after his accident, he said. A webpage seeking charitable donations said the accident occurred in June of 2016.

Tom Burks, a pastor at Stone Ridge Church in Yuma, Ariz., said he has known Arbaugh’s family for about two decades. He said the family had told a few people at the church about the surgery and had asked them to pray for it to go well.

“I’ve been excited for them,” Burks said. Burks said he had been keeping Arbaugh’s involvement with Neuralink private before it became public Wednesday.

 

Musk tweeted in January that the first patient received the implant, specifying only that the person was recovering well. Since then, Arbaugh has been learning to use the implant. He described a process of training it to understand how his thoughts translate to moving the cursor. It has become much easier with time and now he can simply look at the screen and the cursor responds, he said.

“It’s not perfect, we have run into some issues,” said Arbaugh, without detailing them. But he added that the device has already changed his life.

Arbaugh described playing another videogame straight through the night. He said that after eight hours, the Neuralink’s battery ran out and had to be recharged before he could continue playing.

Neuralink uses wireless charging to power its device, which combines a quarter-sized chip implanted in the skull with hair-like electrodes inserted into the brain. The company has shown how a monkey charged its implant by standing beneath a charging coil. One challenge of charging a battery inside the head is ensuring the temperature doesn’t rise significantly. 

Other companies including Paradromics and Precision Neuroscience are developing brain-computer implants that could offer similar functionality to Neuralink. Neither has placed their implant permanently in a human yet.

A fourth company, Synchron, has already done so. It has developed a stent that goes into a blood vessel on top of the brain that can read neural signals. That requires a less invasive surgery than Neuralink’s, but because it is implanted just outside the brain, it may not be able to capture as much neural data.

Musk companies shoot for the moon, or in SpaceX’s case Mars. And at Neuralink, Musk has said the aim is one day to augment perfectly healthy people with its brain implant so the human race can keep up with artificial intelligence. Long before that can happen, Neuralink must show that its implant is safe and effective for people like Arbaugh suffering from debilitating conditions.

 

Write to Rolfe Winkler at Rolfe.Winkler@wsj.com and Alexa Corse at alexa.corse@wsj.com