Elon Musk Says Neuralink Has Implanted Brain Chip in Human 马斯克称Neuralink 已实施首例人类大脑植入芯片手术

Elon Musk said that the first human received a Neuralink brain implant, a potential milestone in the development of “brain-computer interface” technology that could one day help those suffering from debilitating conditions such as paralysis to interact with their surroundings.

Musk tweeted late Monday that the patient had received the implant the prior day and was “recovering well,” suggesting that the surgery was completed successfully and that there were no serious technical problems. Musk didn’t disclose details about the patient. When Neuralink said last September that it was recruiting a trial participant, it said it was looking for someone suffering from quadriplegia.

Musk added that initial results show promising “neuron spike detection,” suggesting further that the Neuralink device is detecting signals from individual neurons inside the brain, a potential advance that could decode higher-quality brain signals. Musk didn’t say how many neurons the company’s device is detecting. The company didn’t provide detailed safety and efficacy data that would be needed to gauge the success of the implant, researchers said.

The news of the human implantation was heralded as a new frontier that can improve the lives of severely disabled and paralyzed people and a development that will require close ethical and regulatory scrutiny. While memes exploded on social media after Musk’s announcement, with some showing mock-ups of human-robot combinations from science fiction lore, the primary application for the technology is for people with severely constricted movement and function. Even for these people, it is expected to take years for the technology to develop and become available.

Neuralink competes with a handful of other brain-computer interface companies. Rival startup Synchron has developed a stent-like device that it has implanted inside the jugular vein on top of a patient’s brain, but not inside brain tissue itself. Another company, Precision Neuroscience, has temporarily implanted its microelectrode array in six patients in order to capture test data before removing it. The device is one-fifth the thickness of a human hair and is designed to sit on top of the brain.

Blackrock Neurotech has an older device that has been safely implanted in many patients, who have been able to eat, send emails and operate robotic arms by thinking, the company has said.

Founded in 2016, Neuralink was last valued at $3.5 billion in a round of equity financing raised in November, according to data provider PitchBook.

A goal for the product, which Neuralink is calling “Telepathy,” is to enable control of a smartphone or computer by thinking, Musk said Monday on X. The company has shown videos of monkeys implanted with its device moving a cursor and playing the videogame “Pong.”

Neuralink’s implant includes a quarter-size chip that is implanted in the skull. Attached to it are dozens of tiny threadlike electrodes that are implanted into the brain itself and that relay electrical signals from neurons. One open question is how an implanted brain will respond to the inserted threads over time. Tissue could grow around them, degrading the electric signals they capture.

Completing the first surgery less than six months after the company said it was opening trial recruitment demonstrates not only Neuralink’s ability to move quickly, but also that there is demand for the company’s product, said Jacob Robinson, founder and chief executive of Motif Neurotech, which is developing its own brain implant that it hopes will one day help treat depression.

“It validates the interest and demand for neurotechnology,” he said.

马斯克(Elon Musk)表示，首位人类患者已接受Neuralink的大脑植入芯片，这是“脑机接口”技术发展的一个潜在里程碑，有朝一日或将帮助那些患有瘫痪等虚弱病症的患者与周围环境进行互动。

马斯克周一晚间发布推文说，这位病人在前一天接受了植入手术，目前恢复情况良好，这表明手术已经成功完成，没有出现严重的技术问题。马斯克没有透露这名病人的详细情况。NeuraLink去年9月宣布正在招募一名试验参与者，当时该公司表示正在寻找一名四肢瘫痪的患者。

马斯克还表示，初步结果显示，神经元尖峰检测大有前途，进一步表明Neuralink设备正在检测大脑内部单个神经元的信号，这一潜在的进步可以解码更高质量的大脑信号。马斯克没有透露该公司的设备正在检测多少个神经元。

研究人员表示，Neuralink没有提供衡量这例植入成功与否所需的详细安全性和有效性数据。

据数据提供商PitchBook称，NeuraLink成立于2016年，在去年11月进行的一轮股权融资中，该公司估值为35亿美元。

马斯克周一在X上表示，NeuraLink称之为“心灵感应”(Telepathy)的这款产品目标是通过思考来控制智能手机或电脑。NeuraLink已展示植入其设备的一些猴子移动光标和玩游戏Pong的视频。

Neuralink的植入物包括一个植入头骨的四分之一大小的芯片。与其相连的是数十个微小的线状电极，这些电极被植入大脑，传递神经元发出的电信号。一个悬而未决的问题是，随着时间的推移，被植入芯片的大脑将如何对插入的这些电极线做出反应。组织可能会在这些线周围生长，削弱它们捕捉到的电信号。