The United States Food and Drug Administration is allowing Neuralink to implant its brain chip into a second person after the company fixed issues it faced in the first patient, reports shared.
The report of the FDA allowing Elon Musk’s company to move forward comes from the Wall Street Journal.
While Musk’s Neuralink will now move forward, it almost saw its trial that began in January cut short after the company shared that 65 threads had detached from the first patient’s brain, causing the chip to malfunction.
The Journal shared in its report that the issue stemmed from the initial surgery when air became trapped inside the patient’s skull.
That patient is Nolan Arbaugh, who has been paralyzed from the neck down since 2016 and became the first patient to receive the quarter-sized implant earlier this year.
The company is mainly focusing on testing the implants on paralyzed patients, giving them the ability to use digital devices by thinking alone.
Arbaugh shared with the Journal that the chip has given him autonomy once again.
“It’s given me the ability to do things on my own again without needing my family at all hours of the day and night,” Arbaugh said.
As for the malfunction, he shared with the Journal that 15% of the threads had remained in his brain after the malfunction occurred.
Neuralink was eventually able to modify the algorithm to boost signal translations without having to remove the chip, solving the issue.
Now, the company is planning on addressing the issue by embedding some of the devices’ ultrathin wires deeper into the brain.
The second implant is expected to be completed in June, and Musk is aiming to have up to 10 people with the chip this year.