Elon Musk’s brain implant startup Neuralink is accepting applications for a second human trial participant to test its device, the billionaire said on X on Friday. The request comes five months after Neuralink implanted a brain chip into its first human trial participant, 30-year-old Noland Arbaugh, and just a week after the company admitted that his implant had experienced an unexpected problem. Neuralink said that the threads connecting the chip to Arbaugh’s brain had retracted, causing performance issues, although the company said it made adjustments to improve its function. Still, Arbaugh says the implant — which allows him to control a computer cursor with his brain — has changed his life. Arbaugh has been a quadriplegic since 2016 following a diving accident. “I didn’t have anything to wake up for in the morning, and this has changed that for me,” Arbaugh told “Good Morning America” in an interview that aired Friday. “I was just very happy that I would be a part of something that I believe is so monumental. This is the next step forward of helping people with paralysis.” Now, Neuralink is seeking more people like Arbaugh to test out its brain chip. “If you have quadriplegia and want to explore new ways of controlling your computer, we invite you to participate in our clinical trial,” the company said on X. Ultimately, Neuralink’s ambition is to use implants to connect human brains to computers to help, for example, paralyzed people to control smartphones or computers or blind people to regain sight. Like existing brain-machine interfaces, the company’s implant would collect electrical signals sent out by the brain and interpret them as actions. The current trial participants will be part of what Neuralink is calling its PRIME Study, short for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface. The intent is to study the safety of its implant and surgical robot and to test the functionality of its device, the company said in a 2023 blog post. The company says it is enrolling trial patients who have “limited or no ability to use both hands due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).” Trial patients have chips surgically placed in the part of the brain that controls the intention to move. The chip then records and sends brain signals to an app, with the initial goal being “to grant people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone,” Neuralink previously explained. About a month after the operation, Musk said Arbaugh could control a computer mouse with his brain. Neuralink later posted a video showing Arbaugh using only his brain to play chess on a computer. But after his device developed an unexpected issue stunting its data processing speeds and performance, Arbaugh told “Good Morning America” that he “cried afterwards.” “It was very, very hard to give up all of the amazing things that I was able to do,” he said. However, Neuralink says the issue was part of its learning process. “The reason we do clinical trials and early feasibility trials is to uncover these sorts of issues as early as possible before they get marketed,” DJ Seo, who co-founded Neuralink with Musk, told “Good Morning America.” “We rolled up our sleeves and found various different ways for Noland to be able to recover his performance, which we have successfully been able to do.” Consumers will not have widespread access to the technology anytime soon. Before Neuralink’s brain implants hit the broader market, they’ll need broader regulatory approval. (SD-Agencies) Words to Learn 相關詞匯 【光標】 guāngbiāo cursor a line on a computer screen that moves to show the point where work is being done 【四肢癱瘓】 Sìzhī tānhuàn quadriplegic permanently unable to move or feel your arms or legs, usually because of a severe injury to the spine 億萬富翁埃隆?馬斯克的大腦植入初創公司Neuralink周五在社交平臺X上表示，該公司正在招募第二名患者，以測試其設備。 五個月前，Neuralink為30歲的諾蘭?阿博植入了大腦芯片，這是他們的第一位人體試驗者。而就在一周前，該公司承認阿博的芯片出現了一個意想不到的問題。Neuralink 公司說，連接芯片和阿博大腦的連接線松了導致了性能問題，不過該公司表示已經進行了調整來改善功能。 盡管如此，阿博仍表示，植入芯片讓他能用大腦控制電腦光標，改變了他的生活。2016年的一次潛水事故讓阿博四肢癱瘓了。 他在周五播出的《早安美國》中說：“之前我早上醒來沒有任何事情可做，手術改變了我的生活。很高興能參與到這件非常有意義的事情中來，幫助癱瘓患者有更好的未來。” 現在，Neuralink正征尋更多人來測試大腦芯片。該公司在X上說：“如果你四肢癱瘓，想試試控制電腦的新方法，我們邀請你參加臨床試驗。” Neuralink的最終目標是利用植入物將人腦與電腦連接起來，幫助癱瘓患者控制智能手機或電腦，幫助盲人重見光明。與現有的腦機接口一樣，該公司的植入體將收集大腦發出的電信號，并將其解讀為動作。 招募受試的項目是Neuralink公司PRIME研究的一部分，PRIME全稱是精確機器人植入腦機接口。該公司在2023年的一篇博客文章中說，這項研究要測試植入物和手術機器人的安全性、以及設備的功能。公司表示，它正在招募“因頸椎損傷或肌萎縮性脊髓側索硬化癥（ALS）導致雙手使用能力受限或喪失”的試驗患者。 通過手術將芯片植入患者大腦控制運動的部分。Neuralink公司此前解釋說，芯片記錄大腦信號并將其發送到一個應用程序中，初始目標是“讓人們僅憑意念就能控制電腦光標或鍵盤”。 馬斯克說，手術大約一個月后阿博可以用大腦控制電腦鼠標。Neuralink隨后發布了一段視頻，顯示阿博用意念控制在電腦上下棋。后來設備出現意外導致數據處理速度變慢、性能受阻后，阿博告訴《早安美國》，他“哭了”。他說：“擁有這種神奇的能力后又失去它是非常非常痛苦的。” 不過，Neuralink公司表示，遇到問題是探索未知的一部分。“我們之所以要做臨床試驗和早期可行性試驗，就是為了在產品上市之前盡早發現問題，”與馬斯克共同創辦 Neuralink的DJ Seo告訴《早安美國》。“我們馬不停蹄地嘗試了各種不同的方法，讓阿博的芯片能夠恢復性能，目前一切順利。”這項技術不會很快普及，距離普通消費者還很遙遠。Neuralink的大腦植入技術需要獲得更廣泛的監管批準后才能進入大眾消費市場。 (Translated by Debra) | 