{"id":142528,"date":"2022-07-20T00:22:50","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T05:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/synchron-says-its-the-first-to-implant-a-human-brain-computer-interface-in-the-us"},"modified":"2022-07-20T00:22:50","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T05:22:50","slug":"synchron-says-its-the-first-to-implant-a-human-brain-computer-interface-in-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/synchron-says-its-the-first-to-implant-a-human-brain-computer-interface-in-the-us","title":{"rendered":"Synchron says it\u2019s the first to implant a human brain-computer interface in the US"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Brain-computer interfaces<\/a> have become a practical (if limited) reality in the US. Synchron says<\/a> it has become the first in the country to implant a BCI in a human patient. Doctors in New York\u2019s Mount Sinai West implanted the company\u2019s Stentrode<\/a> in the motor cortex of a participant in Synchron\u2019s COMMAND trial, which aims to gauge the usefulness and safety of BCIs for providing hands-free device control to people with severe paralysis. Ideally, technology like Stentrode will offer independence to people who want to email, text and otherwise handle digital tasks that others take for granted.<\/p>\n

Surgeons installed the implant using an endovascular procedure that avoids the intrusiveness of open-brain surgery by going through the jugular vein. The operation went \u201cextremely well\u201d and let the patient return home 48 hours later, according to Synchron. An ongoing Australian trial has also proven successful so far, with four patients still safe a year after receiving their implants.<\/p>\n

It may take a long time before doctors can offer Synchron\u2019s BCIs to patients. The company received FDA approval for human trials in July 2021, and it\u2019s still expanding the COMMAND trial as of this writing. Still, the US procedure represents a significant step toward greater autonomy for people with paralysis. It also represents a competitive victory \u2014 Elon Musk\u2019s Neuralink<\/a> has yet to receive FDA permission for its own implant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brain-computer interfaces have become a practical (if limited) reality in the US. Synchron says it has become the first in the country to implant a BCI in a human patient. Doctors in New York\u2019s Mount Sinai West implanted the company\u2019s Stentrode in the motor cortex of a participant in Synchron\u2019s COMMAND trial, which aims to [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":534,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1523,2019,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-computing","category-elon-musk","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}