"Synchron Says It's The First to Implant a Human Brain-Computer Interface in The US"
Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) have become a practical reality in the US. As Synchron says, it has become the first in the country to implant a BCI in a human patient. Doctors in New York's Mount Sinai West implanted the company's Stentrode in the motor cortex of a participant in Synchron's COMMAND trial, which aims to gauge the usefulness and safety of BCIs for providing hands-free device control to people with severe paralysis. The company hopes that technology like Stentrode will offer independence to people who want to email, text, and otherwise handle digital tasks that others take for granted. Surgeons installed the implant using an endovascular procedure that avoids the intrusiveness of open-brain surgery by going through the jugular vein. According to the company, the operation went "extremely well," and the patient returned home 48 hours later. An ongoing Australian trial has also proven successful so far, with four patients still safe a year after receiving their implants. Synchron received FDA approval for human trials in July 2021, and it is still expanding the COMMAND trial.