Precision Neuroscience Corporation (Precision) is touting a study in Nature Biomedical Engineering describing the company’s high-bandwidth brain-computer interface (BCI) system designed for minimally invasive delivery. The paper provides details on preclinical animal studies using a “micro-slit” surgical technique and the first five human patients implanted with the device during standard neurosurgical procedures.

The study marks a significant advance for the BCI field. For decades, high-performance BCIs have depended on penetrating electrodes—an approach that can expose patients to surgical risk and limit adoption. Precision’s work demonstrates, for the first time, that high-resolution brain signals can be captured and used for decoding and stimulation with an array that rests safely on the brain’s surface. This combination of bandwidth and safety challenges longstanding assumptions in neuroscience and points toward a more practical, scalable path for bringing BCI technology to patients.

“Brain–computer interfaces could be life-changing for people with paralysis—helping them speak, work, and live more independently—but until now the technology has required highly invasive brain surgery,” Precision Neuroscience Co-Founder/Chief Science Officer Benjamin Rapoport, M.D., Ph.D., said. “People are told that they have to choose between brain safety and performance. Our goal was to prove that you can have both. This paper shows that it’s possible to get the same high-quality brain signals without opening the skull or piercing the brain.”

The Nature Biomedical Engineering study details the design, preclinical validation, and early human implantation of Precision’s ultra-thin, surface-based cortical electrode array. Each postage stamp-sized module contains 1,024 electrodes, and in early clinical studies researchers placed up to four modules on a patient’s brain, covering approximately 8 cm² of cortex with more than 4,000 electrodes. In animal studies, the system supported high-accuracy sensory and motor decoding as well as focal electrical stimulation. In human patients, the arrays were implanted during surgeries for other conditions, where they were used to safely record high-resolution neural activity in both asleep and awake patients.

Since the manuscript was accepted, Precision has advanced significantly beyond the five patients reported in the paper. The company has now implanted its device in more than 50 patients and, earlier this year, received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance for up to 30-day implantation. These extended-use studies—now underway at six major U.S. medical centers—allow patients recovering from neurosurgery to use Precision’s device for tasks such as typing, playing video games, or controlling robotic devices with their thoughts. These capabilities are expected to initially benefit people with paralysis from conditions such as spinal cord injury, stroke, or ALS.

“What makes this study so exciting is the resolution of the signals we’re getting from the brain,” Precision Neuroscience President/Chief Product Officer and study co-author Craig Mermel, Ph.D., stated. “The more detail you can capture, the better you can translate thoughts into actions—whether that’s moving a cursor, generating speech, or controlling a device. This paper shows it’s possible to collect high-resolution data safely and at scale, which is exactly what’s needed to bring brain–computer interfaces out of the lab and into everyday clinical use.”

Precision Neuroscience aims to provide breakthrough treatments for neurological illnesses. The company is building the only brain–computer interface designed to be minimally invasive, safely removable, and capable of processing large volumes of data.