Elon Musk’s startup Neuralink has shared a progress update as the first participant in its clinical trial passed 100 days. In a blog post, the company shared the user experience of the PRIME Study participant and a quadriplegia patient– Noland Arbaugh. The 29-year-old received the implantation of a brain-computer interface (BCI) in January via surgery.

The company says that the aim of the PRIME Study is to demonstrate that the Neuralink implant (Link) is safe and useful in daily life. While publishing user experience after 100 days in trial, Neuralink also detailed a problem with the implant that reduced the amount of data it was able to capture from Arbaugh’s brain. Let’s get into the details.

Following his participation in the PRIME Study, Noland Arbaugh shares his experience with the Link device, which seems to have significantly improved his digital interface.

Compared to his previous mouth-held tablet stylus, which caused discomfort and required assistance from caregivers, the Link allows Arbaugh to control his laptop and engage in various activities, including playing computer games like Chess and Civilization VI, browsing the internet, and using other applications on a MacBook– all while lying down in bed and controlling a cursor with his mind. The Link also allowed the participant to play Mario Kart on a Nintendo Switch.

“[The Link] has helped me reconnect with the world, my friends, and my family. It’s given me the ability to do things on my own again without needing my family at all hours of the day and night,” Noland Arbaugh said.

During weekdays, Arbaugh dedicates up to 8 hours per day to research sessions, while on weekends, his personal use and recreation with the device can surpass 10 hours daily. In a recent week, he utilised the device for a total of 69 hours, comprising 35 hours of structured sessions and an additional 34 hours of personal use.

Participation in research sessions enables Neuralink to evaluate the Link’s performance, with cursor control speed and accuracy measured in bits-per-second (BPS) using a grid task. During the first-ever research session, Arbaugh reportedly “set a new world record for human BCI cursor control of 4.6 BPS”. Subsequently, he achieved 8.0 BPS and is currently trying to beat the scores of the Neuralink engineers using a mouse, which typically achieves around 10 BPS.

The Link facilitates precise left and right clicks, enabling Arbaugh to select targets similar in size to the smallest icons and buttons on a laptop screen, Neuralink said.

Neuralink confirmed the retraction of a number of threads from the brain in the weeks following the surgery, which resulted in a net decrease in the number of effective electrodes and a reduction in BPS. In response to this change, Neuralink claims to have modified the recording algorithm to be more sensitive to neural population signals, improved the techniques to translate these signals into cursor movements, and enhanced the user interface.

“These refinements produced a rapid and sustained improvement in BPS, that has now superseded Noland’s initial performance,” Neuralink said.