NEURALLINK

Abstract

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) hold promise for the restoration of sensory and motor function and the treatment of neurological disorders, but clinical BCIs have not yet been widely adopted, in part because modest channel counts have limited their potential. Inthis white paper, we describe Neuralink’s first steps toward a scalable high-bandwidth BCI system. We have built arrays of small and flexible electrode “threads”, with as manyas 3,072 electrodes per array distributed across96 threads. We have also built a neurosurgical robot capable of inserting six threads (192 electrodes) per minute. Each thread can be individually inserted into the brain with micron precision for avoidance of surface vasculature and targeting specific brain regions. The electrode array is packaged into a small implantable device that contains custom chips for lowpower on-board amplification and digitization: the package for 3,072 channels occupiesless than (23 × 18.5 × 2) mm3. A single USB-Cable provides full-bandwidth data streaming from the device, recording from all channels simultaneously. This system has achieved a spiking yield of up to 85.5 % inchronically implanted electrodes. Neuralink’s approach to BCI has unprecedented packaging density and scalability in a clinically relevant package.