Neuralink N1
Neuralink's fully implanted wireless brain-computer interface, with 1,024 electrodes on 64 flexible threads inserted by the R1 surgical robot. Investigational, with 26 people implanted across US, Canadian, UK and UAE trials by May 2026, and holder of an FDA Breakthrough Device designation.
Overview
The N1 is the implant of Neuralink. It carries 1,024 electrodes on 64 polymer threads thinner than a human hair, which the R1 robot inserts individually into the motor cortex. The flexible threads differ from the rigid silicon needles of the Utah array. Within a month of the first human implant in January 2024, about 85 per cent of Noland Arbaugh’s threads had pulled away from his brain tissue; software updates redistributed signal processing across the electrodes still in contact.
Trials
The US PRIME study (NCT06429735) has arms in Canada (CAN-PRIME), the UK (GB-PRIME) and the UAE (UAE-PRIME). On 20 May 2026 a Canadian ALS patient at Toronto Western Hospital became the 26th person to receive the N1, and the first to receive it through a transdural technique that threads electrodes through the intact dura. A next-generation R1 robot, disclosed in May 2026, is designed to reach virtually any brain region, which puts Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and depression on the list of possible indications. A separate VOICE trial (NCT07224256) tests speech restoration; in September 2026 a participant with ALS, Terry, spoke through a clone of his own pre-ALS voice. No speed or accuracy metrics were published.
Why it matters
Neuralink now presents its brain data as a source of value in its own right. Participants have streamed more than 50,000 hours of brain recordings in everyday use, and models pretrained on each person’s own recordings cut calibration for some users from about 10 minutes a day to 10 minutes a week. Models pooled across participants have not yet beaten single-participant models in live use, and that is the test of whether the data advantage compounds with scale. The results are company-reported and have not been independently verified.
Coverage on InsideBCI
- 3 October 2026: Neuralink cuts some implant users’ calibration from 10 minutes a day to 10 minutes a week
- 23 September 2026: Neuralink discloses direct thought-to-audio speech decoding in ALS participant Terry, the VOICE trial’s third implantee
- 4 July 2026: Neuralink performs its first transdural implant on a Canadian ALS patient
- 22 May 2026: Neuralink’s surgical robot can now reach any region of the human brain, opening Parkinson’s, epilepsy and depression as new target indications
- 7 March 2026: Inside Neuralink’s First Year: Thread Failures, Software Fixes, and Lives Changed