Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup Neuralink said on Tuesday its experimental implant aimed at restoring vision received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “breakthrough device” designation.
The FDA’s breakthrough tag is given to certain medical devices that provide treatment or diagnosis of life-threatening conditions. It is aimed at speeding up development and review of devices currently under development.
The experimental device, known as Blindsight, “will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see,” Musk said, opens new tab in a post on X.
Neuralink did not immediately respond to a request seeking details about when it expects the Blindsight device to move into human trials. The FDA also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Founded in 2016 by Musk and a group of engineers, Neuralink is building a brain chip interface that can be implanted within the skull, which it says could eventually help disabled patients to move and communicate again, and also restore vision.
Neuralink’s device has a chip that processes and transmits neural signals that could be transmitted to devices like a computer or a phone.
The startup is separately testing an implant designed to give paralyzed patients the ability to use digital devices by thinking alone, a prospect that could help people with spinal cord injuries.
This trial is expected to enroll three patients to evaluate its device in a study expected to take several years to complete, according to details on the U.S. government’s clinical trials database.
Earlier this year, Neuralink successfully implanted the device in the second patient, who has been using it to play video games and learn how to design 3D objects.
The first attempts to translate neuronal activity into commands to control external devices were made in monkeys yet in 1960s. After that, during 1960-1970, the biological feedback was realized in monkeys, to provide voluntary control of the firing rate of cortical neurons. The term “brain-computer interface” appeared only in earlier 1970s. The brain-computer interface is usually referred to as a “brain-machine interface” in invasive studies. Nowadays, the brain-computer interface and brain-machine interface research and applications are considered one of the most exciting interdisciplinary areas of science and technology.