People Let a Startup Put a Brain Implant in Their Skull—for 15 Minutes

The brain shifts in the skull, and so can an implant, Brunner says. A surface array could potentially move around more than one that penetrates the brain. He says even a micrometer shift could change which group of neurons the device is recording from, which could affect how well the BCI operates. 

Rapoport says all electrodes move around a little bit over time, but Precision’s software, which decodes the neural signals, can accommodate those small shifts. 

The company has yet to test the implant procedure on people, but Precision’s scientists have tried it in miniature pigs and left the device in for about a month. They studied the animals’ brain tissue after the devices were removed to confirm that no damage was done, Rapoport says. 

For the three human patients in the pilot study, the device caused no side effects or damage, according to Rapoport. It was able to collect detailed brain activity data from all three. Two patients were having tumors removed from brain regions responsible for language, and were awake during part of their procedures so that doctors could identify critical language areas in real time. 

WVU will enroll up to two additional patients in the ongoing pilot study. Mount Sinai in New York City, Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston are expected to launch related studies soon. 

An implant made by Synchron, another BCI startup, is already allowing a handful of people with severe paralysis to text, email, and surf the internet using only their thoughts. Implanting Synchron’s device, which resembles a heart stent, also doesn’t require removing a portion of the skull. It’s inserted into the jugular vein at the base of the neck and threaded through until it’s adjacent to the motor cortex, the brain’s control center. 

Neuralink’s device will penetrate the brain tissue, but the company is developing a minimally invasive procedure using a sewing-machine-like robot to insert it into the brain. It’s unclear whether Neuralink’s initial human trial will involve this new procedure. Neuralink did not respond to an email inquiry from WIRED. 

Academic labs are also testing novel concepts for less-invasive implants, including “neurograins” the size of salt that could be scattered across the brain’s surface, or an injectable gel that would solidify into a conductive polymer once in the brain.

Jen French, who was paralyzed in a snowboarding accident in 1998 but can now stand with the assistance of a neuroprosthetic implant, is hopeful about the next wave of BCIs. “Like so many people with chronic neurological conditions, we are told there’s no cure,” says French, executive director and founder of Neurotech Network, a nonprofit advocacy organization. Still, while the new generation of minimally invasive devices don’t promise a cure, they could help people regain meaningful function in their daily lives. “It’s exciting to see all of these companies,” French says, “because what that means for people with lived experience is that we’re one step closer to being able to access the technology.”