Chips could soon be implanted in human brains in the USA. The FDA has approved the first clinical tests of the Musk company Neuralink. Before that, there had been safety concerns.
They should enable paralyzed people to walk and heal neurological diseases: computer chips implanted in the human brain. Corresponding tests could soon begin in the USA – the US authorities have apparently given the green light for clinical trials on humans. This was announced by the startup Neuralink, founded by Twitter boss Elon Musk.
“We are pleased to announce that we have received FDA approval to begin our first human clinical trial,” the company wrote on Twitter. The approval is an important first step that will one day make it possible to help people. Recruitment for the study has not yet started, but more information will be announced soon, the company said.
So far only tests on animals
Musk said at a launch of his startup in December that the implants made by Neuralink would allow minds to communicate directly with computers. “Of course we want to be extremely careful and make sure it works well before we put a device in a human,” he said at the time.
Musk wanted to start testing much earlier. But the company’s application for a human clinical trial was initially rejected by the FDA in early 2022 over safety concerns. The agency had concerns about the chip’s lithium battery and the implant’s wires. It was also unclear how the device could be removed without damaging the brain tissue.
So far, the roughly coin-sized prototypes have only been implanted in animals. At the Neuralink presentation, monkeys were shown using the brain chip to “play” simple video games or move a cursor on a screen.
Run and see again thanks to chips
Musk wants to use the interfaces to heal neurological diseases. The startup is currently developing other implants to be placed in the spinal cord or eyes to restore mobility or vision. Musk says the brain implants could also help with obesity, autism, depression and schizophrenia, as well as enable internet browsing and telepathy. He made headlines late last year when he said he was so confident in the safety of the devices that he was willing to implant them in his children.
Neuralink isn’t the only company working on brain-computer interfaces. In July, competitor Synchron announced that it was the first company to have a corresponding chip implanted in the brain of a US patient.