Elon Musk’s brain implant company, Neuralink, announced Tuesday that it is launching research to test its implant for a new use: allowing a person to control a robotic arm using only their thoughts. “We are excited to announce the approval and launch of a new feasibility trial to extend BCI control using an N1 implant in an investigational robotic arm,” Neuralink said in Musk X’s social media post.
A BCI, or brain-computer interface, is a system that allows a person to directly control external devices with brain waves. It works by reading and recording target movement signals from neurons. Neuralink’s BCI consists of a coin-sized device called the N1 that is surgically implanted into the brain by a robot. The company is currently testing the safety of its BCI, as well as its ability to control computers for people with disabilities.
Moving a computer or prosthetic arm is nothing new to BCIs. In 2008, a team led by Andrew Schwartz at the University of Pittsburgh showed that a monkey could control a robotic arm to feed itself using signals from its brain. After that, the researchers moved on to human volunteers. In a 2012 study published in the journal Nature, two people paralyzed by stroke were able to direct a robotic arm to reach and grasp objects just by thinking about it. One was able to serve himself coffee for the first time in 14 years. In another 2016 study, a man with a BCI regained the sense of touch using a robotic arm.
The BCIs used in those studies were sophisticated setups that required running a cable from the study participants’ head to a computer that decoded the brain. In contrast, the Neuralink system is wireless.
On social media earlier this year, Neuralink demonstrated that its BCI can be used to control a computer pointer. In a video on X, research participant Noland Arbaugh was shown using a Neuralink device to play chess and other games on a computer. Arbaugh, who became a quadriplegic after a swimming accident in 2016, spoke to WIRED earlier this year about how the transplant gave him a sense of independence.
Arbaugh underwent brain surgery in January to receive a Neuralink implant, but a few weeks later, the device began to malfunction. The implant consists of 64 thin, flexible wires that penetrate the brain tissue. Each wire contains 16 electrodes that collect nerve signals. In a blog post from May, Neuralink said several fibers in Arbaugh’s brain snapped, causing him to temporarily lose control of the pointer. Neuralink was able to restore Arbaugh’s control by tweaking the brain’s recording algorithm to be more sensitive and change the way it translates neural signals into cursor movements.
