Who Was the First Human with a Neuralink Implant? Key Facts
- Noland Arbaugh received the first Neuralink brain implant on January 28, 2024, at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, which started human trials of the company's brain-computer interface.
- A 29-year-old from Yuma, Arizona, Arbaugh became paralyzed from the shoulders down after a 2016 accident at a summer camp left him with a C4-C5 spinal cord injury.
- With the implant, Arbaugh controls computers, plays games like chess, and designs 3D models using only his thoughts.
How Noland Arbaugh became the first patient
Noland Arbaugh, born in 1994, led an active life until a 2016 accident. At a summer camp, he dove into a lake near some friends, and one of them accidentally hit his head with a knee or elbow. He suffered a C4-C5 spinal cord injury that left him unable to move from the shoulders down and reliant on caregivers for daily tasks. Arbaugh, a former athlete and gamer from Arizona, spent years adapting, using eye-tracking software for basic computer access. But limitations persisted: he could not be left alone for more than 30 minutes without assistance.
The FDA cleared Neuralink's PRIME study in May 2023, for people with quadriplegia from spinal cord injury or ALS. Arbaugh applied through Neuralink's patient registry, went through screening, and was selected as the first participant. "I didn't have anything to wake up for in the morning," he later said.
The surgery and recovery
On January 28, 2024, surgeons at Barrow Neurological Institute performed the first Neuralink human implantation. A neurosurgeon opened a small window in the skull, and Neuralink's R1 robot inserted 64 threads carrying 1,024 electrodes into Arbaugh's brain. The coin-sized N1 implant, which is wireless and rechargeable, sends the signals from those threads over Bluetooth to a computer.
Elon Musk posted days later that initial results showed "promising neuron spike detection." By early February, Arbaugh was moving a cursor on a screen by thinking. Arbaugh named the implant "Eve," and he could use it for thought-based control right away.
What the implant made possible
Within weeks, Arbaugh played online chess, browsed the internet, and streamed content on his own. By May 2024, he reached 8 bits per second in cursor control, ahead of early competitors. Neuralink videos showed him adjusting music volume, scrolling feeds, and gaming.
A year in, he was designing 3D objects, making video calls without help, and controlling smart home devices. By August 2025, he had gone back to school, started a business, and was using the implant about 10 hours a day. He described his life as "completely changed."
Thread retraction
In spring 2024, many of the threads retracted from the brain (reported at about 85%), which sharply reduced the number of effective electrodes. Arbaugh feared the implant might be removed, but software changes restored and then improved his cursor performance, without another surgery. Neuralink later changed its surgery and threads, and reported higher signal quality in 18 of the next 20 participants, according to its January 2026 update.
As "Participant 1," Arbaugh gives feedback that has shaped the software used by later patients, and he shares his experience on X as @ModdedQuad.
What came next
Neuralink's trials expanded across the U.S., U.K., and Canada, with a UAE site recruiting, and Neuralink reported 21 participants on January 28, 2026. In November 2025, Elon Musk shared a report that Arbaugh hopes to receive a second implant below his spinal injury to help restore leg movement.
This article was first published in October 2025 and corrected in October 2026; the latest patient count is on the patient table.
