One hundred days with the chip in the brain: here’s what ‘patient zero’ can do now tetraplegic
The brain chip allows him to interact with smartphones and computers
(Photo from Noland Arbaugh’s Instagram profile)
ROME – More than 100 days have passed since ‘patient zero’ Noland Arbaugh, at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, received his Neuralink implant (Link). The neurotechnology start-up, co-founded by Elon Musk in 2016, implanted the first brain microchip in a human suffering from tetraplegia in January. The 29-year-old is paralyzed from the shoulders down due to a diving accident eight years ago. The chip will allow people like him to regain independence in interacting with smartphones and computers.
THE PATIENT: “I CAN DO THINGS BY MYSELF”
Noland Arbaugh, who returned home the day after the operation, today considers himself completely satisfied: “The most comfortable thing is that I can lie in my bed and use ‘Link’. Any other technology had to have someone else’s help or make me sit – he says – Sitting causes mental and physical stress and would give me bed sores or spasms. It allows me to live at my own pace, without having to to have someone to help me during the day.” ‘Link’ “helped me to reconnect with the world, my friends and family. It gave me the chance to do things on my own again, without need my family, at all hours of the day and night.”
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THE PATIENT PLAYED VIDEOGAMES
Noland used the Link to control his laptop from various positions, including while lying in bed. Play video games online with friends (Chess, Civilization VI), surf the Internet, live stream, and use other applications on your MacBook, all while controlling a cursor with the mind. He even used the Link to play Mario Kart on a Nintendo Switch, something he hadn’t been able to do since his spinal cord injury.
THE FIRST ‘HITCHES’
In the weeks following the operation, we read on the company website, some wires withdrew ‘detached’ from the brain, resulting in a clear decrease in the number of effective electrodes. The recording algorithm has therefore been modified to make it more sensitive to signals, the techniques for translating these signals into cursor movements have been improved and the user interface has been improved.