Neuralink gets approval to start human trials in Canada

The first Neuralink clinical trials outside the US will take place in Canada. We have Neuralink provided Health Canada has given permission to begin human trials in the country, with Toronto Western Hospital being the “first and exclusive surgical site” for the procedure. First, the company opened opened its Canadian patient registry in March of this year, but is now actively seeking potential participants. “Recruitment is now open,” he said Announced in X.

According to the CAN-PRIME study, Neuralink will place its implant in a participant’s brain so it can interpret their neural activity. The implant would allow them to control a computer or smartphone with their brains without the need for wires or any physical movement. Neuralink says the purpose of the study is to “assess the safety [its] implant and surgical robot and evaluate initial functionality [its Brain Computer Interface] for enabling people with quadriplegia to control external devices with their thoughts.” What they learn from the trials could help the company find safer ways to place the implant inside the brain, as well as expand the technology’s capabilities.

Neuralink the first human patient (pictured above) received her implant earlier this year. He’s had some problems, the implant’s wires pulling back out of his brain, though he seems to be doing well these days. In X, he said he would challenge himself soon 72 hours of using Neuralink to demonstrate what the technology is capable of. For him the second patientNeuralink used mitigating measures to prevent the thread from retracting. That patient was already using computer-aided design (CAD) software just weeks after surgery in July. Currently, Neuralink is specifically seeking patients “with limited or no use of both hands due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)” for its trials in Canada.