[hazmazlaz]

This is so fascinating and amazing, congratulations on the achievements you and your team have made.

What are some current limitations of this technology?

Where do you think the trajectory will lead in 5 years in terms of capability?

Are there long term health and safety risks that have been discovered through the various implementations of this technology since 2004?

[drdavidbrandman]

I'm optimistic for the future! Basic science laboratories have provided the foundational insights needed for clinical trials to explore BCI technology in people with paralysis. As academics have de-risked BCI development, there are now multiple companies that are developing fully-implanted devices, including Neuralink, Paradromics, Synchron, and Precision. I hope that we'll be at a point in the next 5 years where I will be able to prescribe one (or perhaps one of many!) of these devices to patients.

The progress described in the NEJM paper is happening as part of an ongoing clinical trial called BrainGate2. The clinical trial has been ongoing for over 20 years. The interim safety analysis was recently published about the first 17 years of the clinical trial [0].

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36639237/