Elon Musk’s Neuralink says there were problems with implants after first human surgery

In a blow to Elon Musk’s brain technology company, Neuralink, the device it implanted in its first human patient has encountered mechanical problems, the company wrote in a blog post.

The company said that in the weeks following patient Noland Arbaugh’s surgery in January, some of the electrode-embedded threads seated in the brain tissue began to dislodge from that tissue, resulting in the device not functioning properly.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the malfunction.

Neuralink said it compensated for that return through a series of software improvements that led to “rapid and sustained improvements that have now surpassed Noland’s initial performance.”

The company said it is currently working on improving text entry as well as cursor controls for the device — and the goal is to eventually expand its use to physical-world devices like robotic arms and wheelchairs.

People working in the brain-implant field said complications can arise from the fact that the threads connect to a device that sits within the skull bone rather than on the surface of the brain tissue. “One thing engineers and scientists fail to appreciate is how much the brain moves in the intracranial space,” said neurosurgeon Eric Leuthard of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “Just shaking your head or moving suddenly can cause an error of several millimeters.”

Traditionally, surgeons place brain implants directly on top of brain tissue, where they float “like a boat on water,” said Matt Engle, chief executive of Paradromics Inc., a rival brain-implant company. This is not normal for a brain transplant,” he said.

Before implanting the device in quadriplegic Arbaugh, Neuralink tested the device extensively in animals. However, one potential issue is that because animals have smaller brains, the electrodes don’t move as much as they do in humans, Leuthardt said.

The report comes as Neuralink tries to get its device implanted in more human subjects. Any glitches could cause delays in the Food and Drug Administration approval process.

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