Neuralink will "change the world" says first human recipient of brain chip implant

A no-frills update on the first human brain implant by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk's company Neuralink, this footage shows 29-year-old Nolan being interviewed in his home just a few weeks after the procedure to instal the chip. Nolan, a complete quadriplegic, says the device has already changed his life, and encourages anyone considering joining the patient register to be part of the clinical trials to go ahead: the January 2024 surgery was straightforward and has had no adverse cognitive effects, he reports. The chip is meant to allow humans to control external devices solely through the power of thinking. Neuralink's first product would be called Telepathy, Musk said, adding that its initial users would be people who have lost the use of their limbs. Neuralink received FDA (the US Food & Drug Administration) clearance for human clinical trials in May 2023, and a few months later, the startup began recruiting patients with quadriplegia caused by cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The chip, installed by a robot in the part of the brain that controls the intention to move, is designed to record and send brain signals to an app, with the initial goal being "to grant people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone," Neuralink explained when it was recruiting people for its trial in September. In the wake of this update and the hopes it creates of people with paralysis being able to move again, Musk posted on his platform social media X (formerly Twitter): "Long-term, it is possible to shunt the signals from the brain motor cortex past the damaged part of the spine to enable people to walk again and use their arms normally".

Keywords: Neuralink Nolan, Neuralink first human brian implant, Elon Musk, paraplegia, quadriplegia, brain signals and movement