Elon Musk’s Neuralink announces successful second in-human brain implant

Elon Musk-owned neurotechnology firm Neuralink announced that the second patient to receive the company’s brain-computer implant as part of its PRIME trial didn’t encounter thread retraction, an issue the first participant had faced.

Updating on the FDA-cleared study late Wednesday, the company said that the surgery for the second trial participant “went well” at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, last month.

The patient, identified as Alex, was discharged the following day, and “his recovery has been smooth,” Neuralink added.

The device named brain-computer interface (BCI) is designed to help patients with neurological conditions control external devices, such as computers, only with their thoughts.

In May, Neuralink said Noland Arbaugh, a 29-year-old accident victim who was the first to receive the device, had several threads come out of the brain, which it said had temporarily reduced his BCI performance.

“Promisingly, we have observed no thread retraction in our second participant,” the company added, noting that it implemented several corrective actions, including measures to reduce brain motion during the surgery.

Early this month, Musk, CEO of EV maker Tesla (TSLA) and space exploration company SpaceX (SPACE), was upbeat on the second implant, saying it “seems to have gone extremely well” with “a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes.”