TL;DRChina approved the world’s first commercial brain implant, beating Neuralink to market. The BCI race is now a geopolitical contest between Beijing’s state-backed speed and the US’s slower but more cautious FDA process.
Controlling a machine with your mind used to be science fiction. Now it is a regulated medical product, at least in China.
Earlier this year, China’s National Medical Products Administration approved NEO, a coin-sized brain-computer interface developed by Shanghai-based NeuraMatrix and Tsinghua University researchers, for commercial use in patients with spinal cord injuries. It is the first time any national regulator has granted commercial approval to an invasive BCI device.
How NEO works
During a 90-minute procedure, the device’s eight sensors are placed on the dura mater, the protective membrane covering the brain. Unlike Neuralink’s approach, which inserts electrode threads directly into brain tissue, NEO sits on top of the membrane.
