Matthew MacDougall

And we, of course, practiced as far as we could on animals. We did hundreds of animal surgeries. And when it came time to do the first human, we had just an amazing team of engineers build incredibly lifelike models.

And we, of course, practiced as far as we could on animals. We did hundreds of animal surgeries. And when it came time to do the first human, we had just an amazing team of engineers build incredibly lifelike models.

One of the engineers, Fran Romano in particular, built a pulsating brain in a custom 3D printed skull that matches exactly the patient's anatomy, including their face and scalp characteristics. And so

One of the engineers, Fran Romano in particular, built a pulsating brain in a custom 3D printed skull that matches exactly the patient's anatomy, including their face and scalp characteristics. And so

One of the engineers, Fran Romano in particular, built a pulsating brain in a custom 3D printed skull that matches exactly the patient's anatomy, including their face and scalp characteristics. And so

And when I was able to practice that, I mean, it's as close as it really reasonably should get to being the real thing in all the details, including having a mannequin body attached to this custom head. And so when we were doing the practice surgeries, we'd...

And when I was able to practice that, I mean, it's as close as it really reasonably should get to being the real thing in all the details, including having a mannequin body attached to this custom head. And so when we were doing the practice surgeries, we'd...

And when I was able to practice that, I mean, it's as close as it really reasonably should get to being the real thing in all the details, including having a mannequin body attached to this custom head. And so when we were doing the practice surgeries, we'd...

wheel that body into the CT scanner and take a mock CT scan and wheel it back in and conduct all the normal safety checks verbally, you know, stop this patient. We're confirming his identification is mannequin number, blah, blah, blah.

wheel that body into the CT scanner and take a mock CT scan and wheel it back in and conduct all the normal safety checks verbally, you know, stop this patient. We're confirming his identification is mannequin number, blah, blah, blah.

wheel that body into the CT scanner and take a mock CT scan and wheel it back in and conduct all the normal safety checks verbally, you know, stop this patient. We're confirming his identification is mannequin number, blah, blah, blah.

And then opening the brain in exactly the right spot using standard operative neuronavigation equipment, standard surgical drills in the same OR that we do all of our practice surgeries in at Neuralink, and having the skull open and have the brain pulse, which adds a degree of difficulty for the robot, you know, perfectly, precisely plan and insert those electrodes to the right depth and location.

And then opening the brain in exactly the right spot using standard operative neuronavigation equipment, standard surgical drills in the same OR that we do all of our practice surgeries in at Neuralink, and having the skull open and have the brain pulse, which adds a degree of difficulty for the robot, you know, perfectly, precisely plan and insert those electrodes to the right depth and location.

And then opening the brain in exactly the right spot using standard operative neuronavigation equipment, standard surgical drills in the same OR that we do all of our practice surgeries in at Neuralink, and having the skull open and have the brain pulse, which adds a degree of difficulty for the robot, you know, perfectly, precisely plan and insert those electrodes to the right depth and location.

And so... Yeah, we kind of broke new ground on how extensively we practiced for this surgery.

And so... Yeah, we kind of broke new ground on how extensively we practiced for this surgery.

And so... Yeah, we kind of broke new ground on how extensively we practiced for this surgery.

Well, we were lucky to have just incredible partners at the Barrow Neurologic Institute. They are I think the premier neurosurgical hospital in the world. They made everything as easy as possible for the trial to get going and helped us immensely with their expertise on how to arrange the details. It was a much more high-pressure surgery in some ways. I mean, even though the

Well, we were lucky to have just incredible partners at the Barrow Neurologic Institute. They are I think the premier neurosurgical hospital in the world. They made everything as easy as possible for the trial to get going and helped us immensely with their expertise on how to arrange the details. It was a much more high-pressure surgery in some ways. I mean, even though the

Well, we were lucky to have just incredible partners at the Barrow Neurologic Institute. They are I think the premier neurosurgical hospital in the world. They made everything as easy as possible for the trial to get going and helped us immensely with their expertise on how to arrange the details. It was a much more high-pressure surgery in some ways. I mean, even though the