Neuralink brain chips head for the Great White North

Elon Musk's brain chip biz, Neuralink, has been given the nod by Health Canada to start recruiting for its CAN-PRIME Study.

The study is a trial for the neurotech startup's wireless brain-computer interface (BCI), designed to interpret a person's neural activity so they can operate a computer by thought alone. The device has over 1,000 electrodes in threads implanted by a Neuralink robot.

It will take approximately four years to complete the trial. Neuralink is looking for people with limited or no ability to use both hands due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

If this all sounds a little familiar, it should. Neuralink's first trial participant received an implant at the beginning of 2024. After some initially promising results, the company – and patient – encountered problems with threads containing the electrodes retracting from the patient's brain, which necessitated some tweaks ...