Elon Musk’s Neuralink Receives Green Light For Human Trials

Elon Musk’s brain-implant startup, Neuralink, has received approval from an independent review board to begin recruiting patients for its first human trial.

The clinical trial will focus on patients with paralysis caused by cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Musk founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup, in 2016. The company aims at creating an implanted brain-computer interface (BCI) that can convert thoughts into actions.

For this purpose, the company is seeking to recruit people with paralysis to test its experimental device in a six-year study. Currently, the specific number of participants remains undisclosed.

Initially, Neuralink intended to get U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permission for ten participants, but after safety concerns were raised by the body, the company negotiated for a smaller participant pool.