{"id":241955,"date":"2026-07-31T20:04:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T01:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/worlds-1-brain-surgeon-the-truth-about-protecting-your-brain-after-40"},"modified":"2026-07-31T20:04:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T01:04:01","slug":"worlds-1-brain-surgeon-the-truth-about-protecting-your-brain-after-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/worlds-1-brain-surgeon-the-truth-about-protecting-your-brain-after-40","title":{"rendered":"World\u2019s #1 Brain Surgeon: The Truth About Protecting Your Brain After 40"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YlokzKnRqmg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Ask most people what a brain chip does and they will tell you it reads your mind. Dr. Michael Lawton implants these devices, and he says that is not what comes off them. He is President and CEO of Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, the hospital where Neuralink\u2019s first human implant was performed, and he has completed more than 10,000 brain operations and clipped around 5,500 aneurysms. Louisa sat down with him inside Barrow to find out what the electrodes actually pick up, how far the technology has come, and where it stops.<\/p>\n<p>He walks through the surgery itself. The device goes into the hand knob, one small lobule of the motor cortex, where 64 electrodes have already become 108. The threads carrying them are about a tenth the thickness of a hair, so a robot inserts them while avoiding every arteriole on the surface. You\u2019ll hear what Nolan Arbaugh, Neuralink\u2019s first patient, can now do with a cursor at world record speed, and why Lawton can\u2019t keep up with him in a head to head.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83e\udd1d Sponsor The Neuro Experience:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/neuroathletics.substack.com\/p\">https:\/\/neuroathletics.substack.com\/p<\/a>\u2026 your risk of Alzheimer\u2019s with my science-backed protocol for women 30+: <a href=\"https:\/\/go.neuroathletics.com.au\/yout\">https:\/\/go.neuroathletics.com.au\/yout<\/a>\u2026 Subscribe to The Neuro Experience for evidence-based conversations at the intersection of brain science, longevity, and performance. _____ TOPICS DISCUSSED 00:00 Intro: The Brain Surgeon at Neuralink\u2019s First Hospital 00:39 The Guy Who Does the Cases Nobody Else Wants 02:17 A Day in the Life: 5:30am Starts and Three Surgeries 03:20 \u201cGame Tape\u201d: Reviewing Every Operation Like an Athlete 04:24 The Surgeon Athlete and Why Surgery Is a Physical Skill 05:32 Fifty Years From Now: What Happens to Neurosurgery 06:11 The ROSA Robot and Mapping a Seizure Focus 08:16 Deep Brain Stimulation and Hitting an Exact Target 08:52 Will We All Be Operated On by Robots? 10:02 The Brain AVM: The One Case a Robot Can\u2019t Take 11:18 Why Bleeding Breaks a Robot: The Waymo Problem 13:15 What a Brain-Computer Interface Actually Does 14:49 The Hand Knob: 108 Electrodes in One Small Spot 15:50 Cursor Control at World Record Speed 16:31 Inside the Implant: Threads a Tenth the Width of a Hair 17:27 \u201cNo, the Chip Cannot Read Your Thoughts\u201d 17:58 What the Device Really Reads: A Train of Spikes 19:18 From Movement to Sensation: What Comes Next 19:48 Why Restoring Sight Is So Much Harder 20:58 The 1943 Paper That Predicted All of This 22:37 Elon, Telepathy, and What\u2019s Actually Possible 23:00 Boosting Creativity and Intelligence in 50 Years 25:10 \u201cWhen I Retire, We\u2019ll Be Treating Depression and Addiction\u201d 26:04 Alzheimer\u2019s: Light Therapy and the Blood-Brain Barrier 27:11 Treating the Disease vs Preventing It 28:25 10,000 Operations: How He Feels About Robots Taking Over 29:54 Neuroplasticity: How Nolan\u2019s Brain Learned the Device 31:34 What Actually Changes at the Neuron Level 32:04 Patient Two and the Robotic Arm 32:42 5,500 Aneurysms: The Cases That Stay With Him 33:16 Cardiac Standstill: Cooling a Brain to 15 Degrees 35:46 What Separates a Great Surgeon From an Average One 36:17 Traits of Greatness: The Formula Nobody Has Cracked 37:21 The Phone Call in the Middle of a 16-Hour Surgery 39:35 \u201cI Must Have Been Born for This\u201d 41:26 Can You Tell How Old a Brain Is Just by Looking? 43:12 Why Alzheimer\u2019s Is Invisible in a Living Brain 44:14 What a Neurosurgeon Does to Protect His Own Brain 44:40 \u201cAlcohol Will Be Viewed Like Cigarettes in the 60s\u201d 45:13 Peptides, Injectables, and Zero Supplements 46:52 The Last Generation to Operate With Open Hands 48:10 How Louisa Found Him on Twitter in 2021 48:53 The Six Mysteries of the Mind 49:14 Which One Gets Solved First, and Which May Never 50:03 Is Consciousness in the Tissue? 51:39 Memory: The Circuitry We Still Can\u2019t Explain 53:18 Why Consciousness Is Harder Than Memory 55:12 Louisa\u2019s Father\u2019s Stroke 56:02 Advice for Anyone Watching a Parent Decline 56:21 His Sister\u2019s Brain Tumor and How He Carries It 57:38 A World Where Stroke Is an Outpatient Repair 58:40 Forty Years On, Finally at the Dawn _______ Thank you to our sponsors Timeline (Mitopure): <a href=\"https:\/\/timeline.com\/neuro\">https:\/\/timeline.com\/neuro<\/a> Mitopure now starts at $79 Ogee: <a href=\"https:\/\/ogee.com\">https:\/\/ogee.com<\/a> Use code NEURO for a discount on the Crystal Contour Collection Kion (Kion Aminos): <a href=\"https:\/\/getkion.com\/neuro\">https:\/\/getkion.com\/neuro<\/a> for a 20% discount Function Health: <a href=\"https:\/\/functionhealth.com\/LouisaNicola\">https:\/\/functionhealth.com\/LouisaNicola<\/a> Use code NEURO25 for a $25 credit _______ I\u2019m Louisa Nicola \u2014 clinical neurophysiologist \u2014 Alzheimer\u2019s prevention specialist Stay sharp. Stay informed. Join thousands who subscribe to the Neuro Athletics Newsletter \u2192 <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3ewI5P0\">https:\/\/bit.ly\/3ewI5P0<\/a> Instagram: <img class=\"\" alt=\"\"> \/ louisanicola_ Twitter : <img class=\"\" alt=\"\"> \/ louisanicola_<\/p>\n<p>Reduce your risk of Alzheimer\u2019s with my science-backed protocol for women 30+: <a href=\"https:\/\/go.neuroathletics.com.au\/yout\">https:\/\/go.neuroathletics.com.au\/yout<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>TOPICS DISCUSSED<br \/> 00:00 Intro: The Brain Surgeon at Neuralink\u2019s First Hospital.<br \/> 00:39 The Guy Who Does the Cases Nobody Else Wants.<br \/> 02:17 A Day in the Life: 5:30am Starts and Three Surgeries.<br \/> 03:20 \\<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ask most people what a brain chip does and they will tell you it reads your mind. Dr. Michael Lawton implants these devices, and he says that is not what comes off them. He is President and CEO of Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, the hospital where Neuralink\u2019s first human implant was performed, and he [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,269,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-life-extension","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241955","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\/511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}