The most widely tested brain implant is the Utah array—a hard silicon square with 100 tiny protruding needles. Each about a millimeter long, the needles have electrodes on their tips that capture brain signals. But these rigid devices can cause scarring to nearby tissue, which over time can interfere with their recording ability. By contrast, one of Neuralink’s innovations are the flexible threads attached to its implant that are dotted with more than 1,000 electrodes.
Neuralink is also trying to improve on existing BCIs that require clunky setups and invasive brain surgery; instead, the company’s sewing machine-like robot could install electrodes by punching them into the brain through a small
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