Paralysis patient will also be able to walk with Neuralink device: Company gets approval for recruitment for trial, robot will implant chip in brain
Elon Musk’s brain-chip company Neuralink has received recruitment approval from the Independent Institutional Review Board for its first human trial. This means that now Neuralink will be able to recruit people for human trials. If the human trial is successful then even the blind will be able to see through the chip. Patients suffering from paralysis will be able to think and operate computers.
Elon Musk said- ‘The first patient will soon get the Neuralink device. It has the ability to restore movement of the entire body. Imagine if Stephen Hawking had this.’ Stephen Hawking was a world famous British physicist and cosmologist. He was suffering from a disease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. In this disease the entire movement of the body stops.
The study will take about 6 years to complete
Neuralink said people who have quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can take part in the trial. His age should be minimum 22 years. The study will take about 6 years to complete. During this period, the participant will receive study related costs, such as travel expenses to and from the site.
Through trials, the company wants to see how the device is working on patients. The safety of N1 implant, R1 robot and N1 user app will also be checked. However, the company has not yet told when the trial will start, or how many participants will be included in it. Earlier in May, the company had received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for the trial.
Neuralink device will be implanted in the brain through surgery
In patients, the N1 implant will be surgically placed in the area of the brain that controls movement. This surgery will be done through R1 robot. All those who have N1 implant will be asked to control the computer. The N1 implant will also be accompanied by the N1 user app. After this, these people will have to give feedback about this entire system.
A chip will bring revolution
The initial goal of our technology is to give people with paralysis control of computers and mobile devices, Neuralink said. We want to make them independent. We want such people to be able to show their creativity like photography through our device. This technique has the potential to treat many neurological disorders.
Use of brain-computer interface
The technology through which Elon Musk has created the chip is called Brain-Computer Interface or BCIs in short. Many other companies have been working on this for years. This system uses tiny electrodes placed in the brain to “read” signals from nearby neurons. The software then decodes these signals into commands or actions, such as moving a cursor or a robotic arm.
