A Neuralink study participant plays Counter-Strike 2 using only his mind

Future-proof: Neuralink’s latest update on the second study participant, identified as Alex, provides more promising results for potential recipients who have lost the ability to interact with the world around them. According to the update, Alex was able to interact with an on-screen cursor within minutes of first connecting, and within hours, he exceeded his previous levels of speed and accuracy on Neuralink’s Webgrid task—levels he achieved using traditional assistive technologies.

Since its announcement in February, the Neuralink PRIME study has been investigating and evaluating the safety and effectiveness of brain-computer interface (BCI) devices, along with the associated BCI software, surgical robots, tools and procedures required to successfully deliver the implants. Earlier this week, the company released an update on its second participant, highlighting its tremendous success and ability to break existing BCI world records on the first day of using the newly implanted device.

Before his spinal cord injury that left him quadriplegic, Alex was a former FPS enthusiast and automotive technician who worked with his hands to build, repair, and design tools, vehicles, and other machines. After the accident, he was only able to use a computer to play games like Counter-Strike 2, using a special game controller for quadriplegics known as the Quadstick.

This mouth-operated joystick is equipped with pressure sensors and mouth position sensors for clicking. Unfortunately, its single-joystick design restricts users to moving or aiming at will, requiring the user to switch between the two by releasing the joystick and using the straw to signal specific functions by sipping or blowing air.

With the new Neuralink implant paired with the Quadstick, Alex was able to fully interact with the game again, moving, aiming, and shooting simultaneously, without having to stop one action to initiate another. Instead, he simply thinks about where he wants to aim, and the implant interprets his request, providing the appropriate input in the game.

Alex’s reaction to his newfound abilities speaks for itself and has undoubtedly exceeded his expectations. “Running itself is so much fun because I can look to the sides and I don’t have to move the Quadstick left and right… I can (think where) to look and it goes where I want it to go. It’s crazy.”

Gaming isn’t the only benefit of the implant’s newly restored abilities. It has also allowed Alex to once again pursue computer-aided design (CAD), a task that was previously extremely difficult due to the technological limitations of the Quadstick and other assistive devices.

On his second day with the Neuralink implant, Alex successfully used Fusion 360 to design a custom Neuralink charger mount. The design was later 3D printed and integrated into his physical setup. The Neuralink team said it is continuing to work with Alex to map his intended movements to different types of mouse clicks, increasing the number of available controls and allowing him (and future users) to quickly switch between different modes and functions in CAD software.

The Neuralink update also outlines some of the findings and mitigations implemented based on observations of the first patient in the PRIME study, Noland Arbaugh. After Arbaugh was implanted, the discovery of some retraction of the implant threads temporarily reduced his overall BCI performance. Fortunately, the reduction was temporary, and the threads later stabilized and performance returned.

These observations allowed the Neuralink team to reduce the risk of Alex’s implant retraction by implementing countermeasures, including reducing brain movement during surgery and minimizing the gap between the implant and the brain surface. So far, Alex has not experienced any similar performance issues related to retraction.

The ability to interact with computers and the world around us using only our minds was once the stuff of science fiction. However, given the successes and continued progress in implementation, it seems that Neuralink is getting closer to making the dream of seamless human-machine interaction a reality.