Neuralink is now inviting you to sign up for its Patient Registry at neuralink.com/patient-registry. This clinical trial dubbed the “Prime Study” (or Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface), is Neuralink’s first step toward the future.
“By participating in the study, you’d be helping to redefine the boundaries of human capability,” says the Neuralink promotional video for the clinical trial. “Imagine the joy of connecting with your loved ones, browsing the web, or even playing games using only your thoughts.”
The application’s first four simple questions are designed to weed out most candidates. Enrollment requires a significant physical disability, such as quadriplegia, paraplegia, blindness or visual impairment, aphasia or the inability to communicate, deafness or hearing impairment, and significant limb amputation.
“We’re only accepting applications from individuals with qualifying conditions at this time,” says Neuralink.
Moreover, candidates must be 18 years of age or older and should be from the US or Canada only. Through improvements in their quality of life, such people stand to benefit the most from the implant. Only one person has gotten the implant thus far. The 29-year-old quadriplegic Nolan Arbaugh claims he uses the implant to use his mental abilities to play video games on his computer. Arbaugh had a “freak diving accident eight years ago” that left him handicapped from the neck down.
“My brain is the only tool being used; everything you see on the screen, including the mouse movement, is me. I think it’s very cool.” Arbaugh claims in a chess game video that was uploaded on X.
The FDA has approved the Prime Study. Nine in-person and home visits are provided to participants over about eighteen months. They participate in two one-hour research sessions per week. Long-term follow-up takes place over five years, with 20 visits, after the first study’s final analysis.