Months after receiving FDA approval for human trials, Neuralink is looking for its first test subjects. The initial six-year trial, which the Elon Musk-owned company is calling the “PRIME study,” is designed to test Neuralink’s technology, which is designed to help those with paralysis control devices. The company is looking for people with quadriplegia due to vertical spinal cord injury, or ALS, who are over 22 years old and have a “consistent and reliable caregiver” to participate in the study.
The PRIME study (which apparently stands for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface, although the acronym makes no sense) intends to investigate three things at once. The first is the N1 implant, a Neuralink brain-computer device. The second is the R1 robot, a robotic surgeon who actually implants the device. The third is the N1 User App, software that connects to the N1 and converts brain signals into computer actions. Neuralink says it plans to test the safety and effectiveness of all three parts of the system.
To be clear, this is not the all-encompassing brain computer that Musk has been talking about for years. Musk has spent years talking about the potential of telepathy and using Neuralink to help humans keep up with artificial intelligence, and the system Neuralink plans to test falls far short of those ambitions.
Researchers have long been testing implants that allow people with paralysis to also control computers and other devices. Two recently published studies, for example, have shown that brain-computer interfaces can help ALS patients communicate while typing on a computer.
Still, the study is a big step for Neuralink, which won FDA approval in May after the agency rejected it in early 2022.
Neuralink has also been a magnet for controversy over the years, both due to Musk’s over-promising and the company’s internal practices. His treatment of monkeys during testing has repeatedly been a problem, with Musk recently saying that testing was only done on “terminal monkeys” and that no monkeys had ever died as a result of Neuralink implants, but regulators found many problems. with his treatment of animals. The company is also being investigated for illegally transporting devices with pathogens extracted from monkeys.
Those taking part in the PRIME study will initially take part in an 18-month study involving nine visits by researchers. After that, they will spend at least two hours a week studying the brain-computer interface, and then make another 20 visits over the next five years. Neuralink did not say how many subjects it is seeking or when it plans to start the study, but says it only plans to cover “study-related expenses,” such as travel to and from the study site. (Also unclear: where that site is. Neuralink only says it received approval from “our first hospital.”)
As with many things about Neuralink, it can be difficult to separate the company’s promises from its plans, so it’s hard to know exactly what will come out of the PRIME study and when. But it looks like we’re about to get our first look at what happens when you let Elon Musk completely inside your head.