Elon Musk’s Neuralink reported that its brain chip had problems after implantation in the first patient

The Neuralink brain chip, which was recently implanted in the first patient, had mechanical problems shortly after surgery. Bloomberg reports this with reference to information from Elon Musk’s company.

In January, Neuralink implanted a brain chip in a human for the first time. Elon Musk explained at the time that the chip allows you to control a phone or computer, and through them almost any device, with the power of thought.

A month later, the businessman announced that the first patient with a Neuralink brain chip had completely recovered and could mentally control a computer mouse. In March, a video was released showing the patient playing chess with the power of thought.

Now, Neuralink has revealed the problems with the chip. It turned out that a few weeks after the January surgery, some of the threads to the chip’s electrodes became disconnected, causing the device to malfunction.

Neuralink said it compensated for this deviation with a series of software fixes that “produced a rapid and sustained improvement.”

People who work in the field of brain implants say that complications could arise because the threads connect to a device that is placed inside the skull bone, not on the surface of the brain tissue.

“One thing engineers and scientists fail to appreciate is how much the brain moves within the intracrainial space,” said Eric Leuthardt, a neurosurgeon at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. “Just nodding your head or abruptly moving it can lead to perturbations of several millimeters.”

As you know, Elon Musk has big ambitions for Neuralink. He claims that the technology will help treat diseases such as obesity, depression, schizophrenia, etc.