Neuralink Trial Implantations Underway at Toronto Hospital

Doctors at the University Health Network’s Toronto Western Hospital recently performed the first-ever implantations of the Neuralink brain-computer interface (BCI) outside of the United States. These surgeries, which are part of a four-year trial evaluating the safety of the technology for humans, sit at the intersection of engineering, neuroscience and clinical care.

In simplified terms, the Neuralink device is a tiny computer chip – so tiny, in fact, that high-precision robots are required to insert the device’s hair-like threads into the part of the brain that controls movement. Once implanted, the ultrathin wires act as sensors, detecting the electrical pulses that the brain generates by thinking. The device translates those electrical signals into instructions that it beams to connected devices, which then move according to the user’s wishes. In this way, individuals with complete or near-complete paralysis can use Neuralink to control mechanized limbs and other assistive devices with their own thoughts.

Neuralink obtained a patent for its Canadian trial in November 2024, christening the device the Canadian Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface, or “CAN-PRIME”. Now that the first surgeries have been performed in Toronto, the two recipient patients will participate in follow-up appointments and research sessions as they learn how to use the BCI (both patients were able to leave the hospital the morning after their respective surgeries). All the while, recruitment of more participants will continue, with researchers seeking out individuals with little or no ability to use both of their hands due to spinal injuries or degenerative diseases like ALS.

Neuralink, which is owned by the polarizing billionaire and former Trump Administration official Elon Musk, is not without its skeptics. As the CBC reported, the first person to receive the device in the United States last year complained that it began “slipping out of his brain” just weeks after the surgery. While his progress was set back as a result, the patient has since stated that he eventually stabilized, and that the procedure has indeed been worthwhile. Such stories lead voices like Barry Munro, the chief development officer at the Canadian Spinal Research Organization, to call for “educated hope,” tempering any expectation of a speedy rollout of the device on the medical market.

A chip implanted into the human brain was once the stuff of science-fiction; today, Musk’s Neuralink is poised to turn this longstanding trope into a clinical reality. With rigorous testing and yet more R&D still to come, this technology has the potential to transform quality of life for patients with severe mobility issues, beginning right here in North America.