It is a minor sensation and holds hope for millions of people. A patient with a neural link implant has succeeded for the first time in controlling a mouse pointer with his thoughts
The news that went around the world on March 20 from Elon Musk and his company Neuralink sounded like something out of a future novel. During a livestream on X, the California-based company showed what most people had previously only seen in sci-fi films
Chess thanks to an implant
Since a diving accident, 29-year-old Nolan Arbaugh has suffered from quadriplegia and is unable to move his arms or legs. His entire body from the shoulders down is permanently paralyzed and severely restricts his life.
Now the Californian company Neuralink has taken a major step that gives Nolan and many other people affected by paralysis great hope. Thanks to a brain implant, which was inserted in January, he was able to play chess and even Civilization VI again for the first time. Nolan controlled the games with nothing more than his thoughts.
The implant captures brain signals, converts them into a Bluetooth-based command and sends it to the computer, which moves the mouse.
– Neuralink (@neuralink) March 20, 2024
The procedure to insert the implant was surprisingly quick and easy. After just one day in hospital, Arbaugh was able to return home. No impairments in his cognitive abilities were detected
The video on X has already been viewed almost 100 million times and has amazed the world. In addition to demonstrating the implant during a round of chess, Arbaugh also speaks out:
I love chess and this is one of the things I can do again thanks to you guys, something I haven’t been able to do the last couple years. It’s not perfect, we still have some problems. I don’t want people to think this is the end of the journey, there’s still a lot of work to do, but it’s already changed my life
It’s good news for those affected and not least for Neuralink itself, which caused a stir in February 2024 with rather negative headlines when it was announced that several laboratory monkeys had died during a trial with their brain implants
In addition to chess, the 29-year-old is said to have been able to play Civilization VI for eight hours at a time. Civ veterans know that this is the minimum length for a “quick round” of Civilization.
“No breakthrough “
As Arbaugh himself has said, this is just the beginning of the journey and there is still much work ahead for the researchers.
The entire development of brain implants is still at an extremely early stage and the successes shown are not a breakthrough, said the former director of neurotechnology at the US National Institute of Health, Kip Ludwig.
Elon Musk’s company is not the only one working on BCIs (brain-computer interfaces). In a similar experiment back in 2004, researchers succeeded in operating mouse pointers using thought control.
Neuralink has announced that, in addition to improving BCI, the next steps are to develop implants for the eyes and spinal cord to improve the vision and mobility of patients.
However, the new type of communication between patient and computer is a step in the right direction and opens up completely new possibilities for researchers and patients alike.
