San Jose, California, 30 January 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Elon Musk's medical technology company Neuralink has placed its brain implant in a human for the first time.

The patient is recovering well after the procedure on Sunday, the tech billionaire wrote on his online platform X on Monday.

"Initial results show promising neuron spike detection," Musk posted.

The implant from Neuralink is designed to enable people to operate a smartphone with their thoughts - as well as other technology.

In May, Neuralink was authorized to use the flat and round implant in a clinical trial with humans, after it had previously been tested on monkeys. The implant has 1,024 electrodes, which a robot connects to the brain using an extremely fine needle.

For the clinical trial, Neuralink was looking for patients with tetraplegia - paralysis in the legs and arms.

When people start to move, a certain area of the brain becomes active. The electrodes pick up these signals and should be enough to imagine a movement to operate a cursor on a computer, for example.

Even with successful operations, it can take months for patients to learn to control computers with their thoughts.

The Neuralink clinical trial is designed to run for six years.

Research into brain-computer interfaces of this kind has been going on for years and some people have already had various implants fitted. Neuralink also has several competitors that also hope to utilize the technology commercially.

One company, Precision Neuroscience, wants to attach its implant, which also has 1,024 electrodes on a film, to the brain in a minimally invasive way via a very fine incision in the skull.

Rival Synchron uses 16 electrodes to bring its system close to the right areas of the brain via blood vessels.

Photo: EPA