Six paralyzed people receive brain implants in US

The American company Synchron, the main competitor of Elon Musk's Neuralink, is starting to test its brain implant in humans, reports Bloomberg. The paperclip-sized implant will be implanted in six patients in New York and Pittsburgh suffering from severe paralysis. The device should help them manage digital devices with the power of thought alone.

The stentrod implant (derived from the words stent and electrode) is a brain-computer interface. A stent is a flexible metal frame studded with electrodes that can record neural signals in the brain. In a minimally invasive procedure that does not require opening the skull, the scaffold is implanted through an incision in the jugular vein. Once in a blood vessel located above the motor cortex - the area of the brain responsible for movement, it expands, the electrodes are in close proximity to the walls of the blood vessel close to the brain and can record neural signals.

Signals are transmitted from the brain to a device implanted under the skin in the chest. Brain activity is translated into a standardized digital language, and a person can carry out routine activities, including texting, email, online shopping and accessing telemedicine services, hands-free. A clinical study should show how effective and safe the implant is. If the trials are successful, the Stentrode may be commercially available.

Elon Musk's company Neuralink is also trying to create a miniature device capable of linking the human brain to a machine interface. According to Musk, in four years an implant for people with severe traumatic brain injuries will be ready, and in ten years the technology will be available to anyone. Thanks to the implant, Musk says, people will be able to increase their productivity dozens of times, control the virtual world with the power of thought, communicate with the dead, and so on.