One of the first people in the UK to use Elon Musk’s brain chip says it “feels magical” and believes it could transform the lives of those with severe paralysis.
“It is a massive change in your life where you can suddenly no longer move any of your limbs,” said Sebastian Gomez-Pena, a volunteer in the first UK trial of the device developed by Mr Musk‘s company Neuralink.
“This kind of technology kind of gives you a new piece of hope.”
Seb had just completed his first term at medical school when an accident left him paralysed from the neck down.
He’s one of seven people fitted with the chip in the UK trial, designed to assess the safety and reliability of the device.
The Neuralink chip, which is linked to 1,024 electrodes implanted in his brain, was fitted in a five-hour operation at University College London Hospital (UCLH).
While British surgeons and engineers from Neuralink were involved, the device itself was implanted by Neuralink’s R1 robot – developed to insert the microscopic electrodes into fragile brain tissue.
The electrodes were inserted about 4mm into the surface of Seb’s brain, in the region that controls hand movements.
Nerve signals are carried via threads around 10-times thinner than a human hair to the chip, which is fitted into a circular hole in Seb’s skull.
Neuralink allows someone to control a computer or mobile device. Pic: Neuralink
Data from the chip is transferred wirelessly to a computer in which AI software “learns” to interpret the signals, translating Seb’s instructions to his hands that were cut off following his accident into the movement of a cursor on his laptop or phone.
“Everyone in my position tries to move some bit of their body to see if there is any form of recovery, but now when I think about…
