Brain chip company Neuralink gets approval for trial

Neuralink, a brain chip company of Elon Musk, owner of Tesla has approved for its first human trial by the Independent Institutional Review Board.

It means now Neuralink will be able to recruit people for human trials.

If this trial becomes successful, then the blind will be able to see through the chip and paralysis patients will also be able to use the computer by their thinking power only.

Musk said "the first patient will soon get the Neuralink device. This ultimate has the potential to restore full body movement". "What happened if Stephen Hawking had it", he further said.

Stephen Hawking was a world-renowned British physicist and cosmologist. He was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In this disease, the entire movement of the body stops.

Neuralink said that people who have quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can take part in this trial. But the age should be at least 22 years.

The company claimed that the study will take about six years to complete. During this time, the participant will get study related costs, such as travel expenses to and from the site.

The motive behind the trial is that the company wants to see how the device is working on patients. The safety of N1 implant, R1 robot and N1 user app will also be checked. The company, however, has not declared yet that when the trial will start, or how many participants will be involved in it. Earlier in May, the company received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for the trial.

How will it work?

The N1 will be implanted in the patients by surgery in the area of the brain that controls movement. This surgery will be done through R1 robot. People who have N1 implant will be asked to control the computer. There will also be a N1 user app with the N1 implant. After this, these people will have to give feedback of this entire system.