Neuralink enrols its second test patient just two months after the first brain chip recipient suffered potentially life-threatening complications - and Elon Musk claims trial numbers could be in 'high single digits this year'

Neuralink is ploughing ahead with plans to place another implant in a human brain, despite complications for the first recipient. 

Founder Elon Musk has said that his neurotechnology firm is 'moving on' to a second procedure in another patient – although he didn't reveal who it will be. 

He also wants to ramp up the number of operations to 'high single digits' by end of year.

Neuralink's chip interprets neural activity in the brain so a person can operate a smartphone or control a computer cursor just by thinking.

But the first recipient suffered a potentially life-threatening condition during surgery that later caused his brain chip to malfunction, a report claimed. 

Musk and members of the Neuralink team fielded questions during a livestream on X (Twitter), discussing the path to making its controversial brain implants commonplace.

Implantation in a second patient has already received FDA approval.  

'We're only just moving now to our second Neuralink patient but we hope to have, if things go well, high single digits this year,' Musk said. 

Neuralink's chip, about the size of five stacked coins, is placed in a region of the brain that controls the intention to move by a 'sewing-machine-like' robotic surgeon. 

The robot removes a small chunk of the skull, connects the thread-like electrodes to certain areas of the brain, stitches up the hole and the only visible remains is a scar left behind from the incision.

Going forward, threads will be implanted deeper in the brain and at varying depths, with ramped-up precision to maximize effectiveness, the Neuralink team said. 

Musk, who founded Neuralink in 2016 with a team of seven scientists and engineers, promised 'it's only going to get better from here'. 

Musk envisions Neuralink implants that can restore sight to the blind, give people infrared or ultraviolet vision or let them share concepts with others telepathically.

'We want to give people superpowers,' he said.  

'Not just that we're restoring your prior functionality, but that you actually have functionality far greater than a normal human.'

Musk spoke of developing an automated process in which Neuralink's surgery robot could quickly install custom implants in people seeking 'upgrades'. 

'It's very sort of 'Cyberpunk' or 'Deus Ex,' if you play those games,' Musk said of the idea.

Another 'exciting possibility is to combine parts of the Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot and with a Neuralink to have 'basically cybernetic superpowers', Musk said.

In January, the neurotechnology company installed a brain implant in Arizona-based quadriplegic Noland Arbaugh – an operation that Musk touted as a success.

Mr Arbaugh was able to control a computer mouse using their thoughts and race his stepfather in Nintendo's Mario Kart, as well as taking Japanese and French lessons by controlling a computer screen cursor with his brain.

However, Mr Arbaugh – who was left paralyzed from the shoulders down by a diving accident eight years ago – suffered a life-threatening condition during the surgery. 

A report claimed that air became trapped inside Mr Arbaugh's skull during the operation, a condition known as pneumocephalus that can cause seizures, brain abscess and death if untreated. 

Neuralink admitted that the implant's tiny wires, which are thinner than a human hair, retracted from his brain, resulting in fewer electrodes that could measure brain signals.

'In the weeks following the surgery, a number of threads retracted from the brain, resulting in a net decrease in the number of effective electrodes,' the firm said in a blog post. 

Neuralink knew the implant was likely to malfunction in its first human patient but went ahead with the surgery anyway, another report claimed. 

Musk has grand ambitions for Neuralink, having said it would facilitate speedy surgical insertions of its chip devices to treat conditions like obesity, autism, depression, and schizophrenia. 

The billionaire has said that he'd be comfortable implanting a brain chip into one of his children, in response to a query.

'I would say we're at the point where at least, in my opinion, it would not be dangerous,' he said in December 2022. 

However, following Musk's announcement that the first human had received a Neuralink implant, experts raised serious concerns about safety.

Speaking to MailOnline, Dr Dean Burnett, honorary research associate at Cardiff University, called the start of human trials 'disconcerting and alarming'. 

'The speed at which [Musk] has gone from having no involvement in neurosurgical implants to making massive global statements is disconcerting and alarming,' he said.

'The thing is he has this huge army of supporters that may volunteer for this kind of thing and I do think that's quite dangerous when it comes to sticking things in people's bodies.' 

While Dr Burnett said that this first patient would be safe, he addressed 'the bigger risk' that people 'see this work well and then roll it out because not every procedure is going to be under the same spotlight'. 

He added: 'I wouldn't do it [receive an implant] and if I could talk to the person that has volunteered for it I would try to talk them out of it.' 

Neuralink, which was valued at about $5 billion last year, has also faced repeated calls for scrutiny regarding its safety protocols and animal testing.  

It has spent the past few years testing the implant on animals with mixed results.

In a 2020 presentation, Musk unveiled the Neuralink chip to the public for the very first time, with a demonstration on a pig named Gertrude.

Gertrude's brain signals were visualised in real-time while she snuffled around her pen, that were being picked up by her implant. 

Another pig involved in the demonstration had once had an implant but then had it removed and was living a 'healthy life'. 

The following year, Musk did another demonstration, which involved a macaque monkey with a brain chip that played a computer game by thinking alone. 

However, in February 2022, Neuralink confirmed that monkeys had died during its tests, although denied any animal abuse.

The latter was in response to claims made by a non-profit the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) in a complaint with the US Department of Agriculture.

Concerns raised by PCRM in the complaint included an example of a monkey missing fingers and toes that may have been lost to 'self mutilation'.

Another case is of a monkey with holes drilled in its skull to have electrodes implanted into the brain, and a third of one suffering from a brain haemorrhage.

The majority of the monkeys had to be euthanised, or died as a result of procedures, according to the complaint. 

Jeremy Beckham, from PCRM, told the New York Post that 'pretty much every single monkey that had had implants put in their head suffered from pretty debilitating health effects'.

On top of claims of animal cruelty, experts warn that there could be privacy issues with brain implants.

Dr. Susan Schneider, the founding director of the new Center for the Future Mind, told the Daily Mail in April 2021: 'If the widespread use becomes hooking us to the cloud, not as therapies, and merge humans with AI the economic model will be to sell our data.

'Our innermost thoughts would be sold to the highest bidder. Also, do we need a subscription that we pay for? What if for powers get ahold of our thoughts?'

While January marked the first human trial of Neuralink's technology, it was far from the first time that computer brain interface devices have been implanted in humans. 

Since 2004, the BrainGate interface system developed by Brown University has been tested in human subjects with promising results.

A review of patients' health published in 2021 found that there were no serious health consequences of the implant and none needed to be removed for health reasons.  

Andrew Jackson, professor of neural interfaces at Newcastle University, told MailOnline that the Neuralink device might even be safer in some ways than the BrainGate system.

'One of the biggest risks of the existing technology is that there's a "percutaneous" connection where wires from the implant come through the skin,' he explained.

'That's a potential route for infection so one of the advantages of Neuralink is that it is wireless.' 

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