Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface (BCI) startup Neuralink announced the company has successfully performed its first transdural brain implant surgery, which promises to increase scalability while significantly reducing surgical trauma.
The News
In a new video (seen below), Neuralink reveals it has implanted electrode threads through the dura—the brain’s thick, leather-like membrane that sits just below the skull—without cutting or removing it like in the company’s previous human clinical trials.
The procedure was carried out in May 2026 during a clinical trial at University Health Network’s Toronto Western Hospital, which is intended to make implantation safer, less invasive, and faster, the company says.
To do this, Neuralink redesigned its insertion needle to better penetrate the dura, which can be over 10 times thicker than the company’s electrode threads, which are thinner than a human hair. The key issue though is the brain beneath is constantly moving, and the dura obscures a dangerous network of blood vessels that need to be avoided.
Neuralink also developed synthetic dura models for extensive testing, allowing researchers to test new imaging systems to better view the brain below the dura.
As seen in the video, Neuralink’s new technique uses indocyanine green (ICG) video angiography, an imaging technique that uses a fluorescent dye to visualize blood flow in real-time, and optical coherence tomography (OCT), which can precisely measure the distance to the brain’s surface as it throbs and moves beneath the dura.
Neuralink says eliminating the step of removing the dura simplifies the procedure and is an important step toward more automated, scalable brain implant surgeries.
“We like to say ‘the best step is no step’ and deleting the durectomy takes one of the most delicate manual steps out of the procedure,” the company says. “This potentially means a safer, more repeatable surgery, and a real path to scaling Neuralink to the many people who could benefit.”
The result: the participant was controlling a cursor with their thoughts within an hour of surgery, and recovery is progressing as expected, the company says.
My Take
Neuralink’s latest breakthrough comes in stark contrast to Meta’s recent Brain2Qwerty v2 research. In short, Meta thinks implants are difficult to scale, which is why they’re investigating the limits of what non-invasive imaging methods can achieve when combined with AI-assisted signal decoding.
For now, both Meta and Neuralink are currently hoping to help people with neurological injuries, which impair speech or movement to some extent, although I can’t help but wonder at how both companies are really talking about scaling. At this stage, they’re most definitely talking about scaling to other similarly affected people, although the real target seems fairly implicit : BCI will eventually be a consumer product, and companies need to do the heavy research now to reserve a spot at the table.
Granted, it’s still very early days. Invasive methods, like those used by Neuralink, provide a much higher signal-to-noise ratio when recording and decoding action potentials, although they still require a surgeon to saw out a quart-sized hole in your skull and put needles in your brain. For consumers at least, it’s the sort of elective surgery that will need to approach LASIK levels of safety and precision before it comes anywhere near a ‘neurotypical’ brain. Actually, probably even more than LASIK, as it would need to be sufficiently reversible and potentially upgradable too.
On the flipside, non-invasive methods like Brain2Qwert v2 make use of magnetoencephalography (MEG) imaging equipment strapped to your head, and rely more heavily on AI to decode signals from the respectively higher noise, since it has to infer action potentials from outside the skull. Meta says it can obtain better results than the more common electroencephalography (EEG) methods of imaging, although current MEG devices need to be used in a magnetically-shielded room to work.
I will continue to be impressed with the technical progress on both ends of the BCI spectrum, although I think it’s safe to say most people won’t have to worry about renting a piece of their brains to trillion-dollar market cap company for a little while longer.
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