Musk's Neuralink Reports Successful 2nd Implant Trial, No Thread Issues

The procedure also appears to have successfully averted an issue that dogged the experience of the first patient, Noland Arbaugh, who had the unexpected complication of electrode threads retracting from his brain.

“To reduce the probability of thread retraction in our second participant, we implemented a number of mitigations, including reducing brain motion during the surgery and reducing the gap between the implant and the surface of the brain,” the company said in a blog post.

In the case of Arbaugh, Neuralink made post-surgical software tweaks that also mitigated the issue.

The company said it was working on new capabilities for its brain interface device, dubbed Link, which for now allows patients to control on-screen cursors and digital devices, click by click. In the future, it said, Link would be able to decode multiple simultaneous movement intents and recognize handwriting intent to help patients write faster.