Neuralink's first brain chip implant encountered a problem

Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain technology startup, announced on Wednesday that an issue arose with its inaugural human brain implant shortly after it was placed in a patient.

According to a blog post by the company, in the weeks following the surgery in January, some of the implant's connecting threads retracted from the brain, resulting in a decrease in the signals it could capture.

Neuralink provided limited information regarding the problem and did not specify the cause of the thread retraction. However, the company mentioned that it adjusted an algorithm to enhance sensitivity to neural population signals, thereby improving the detection and translation of the patient's brain signals.

The N1 device by Neuralink, approximately the size of a quarter, is intended for full implantation on the skull. It connects to the brain's motor cortex via 64 ultra-thin threads equipped with tiny electrodes to detect neural signals from the patient.