Synchron’s Stentrode device expands inside a blood vessel on the brain to relay motor signals [Illustration courtesy of Synchron]
Four ALS patients with a Synchron Stentrode brain implant had no serious adverse events one year after their procedure, which allowed the paralyzed patients to control a computer for online shopping, banking and text communication without using their hands or voice for input.New York-based Synchron said the study — allowed by the FDA under an Investigational Device Exemption — demonstrated the safety of its brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. The device is delivered by catheter rather than the open-brain surgeries used by other neurotech developers like Elon Musk’s Neuralink.
Synchron uses the catheter to feed the Stentrode device through a patient’s vein to the blood vessels on the brain (the YouTube video below from 2021 shows the process). Then, th…