Neural Noise

Mount Sinai BCI outlook

2 min read

  • Mount Sinai researchers are contributing to BCI development and clinical outlook for invasive neural interfaces.1
  • Academic medical center involvement signals growing clinical translation of BCI technology.1 1

Weekly enrichment (2026-07-20)

  • Mount Sinai was the first U.S. institution to implant Synchron’s Stentrode endovascular BCI, with neurovascular surgeon Shahram Majidi, MD, performing the first Stentrode implant in July 2022 on a participant with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).23
  • Mount Sinai was one of three clinical sites (with UB Neurosurgery/Gates Vascular Institute and UPMC, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University) for the NIH BRAIN Initiative-funded COMMAND early feasibility study (NCT05035823), the first FDA-approved IDE trial of a permanently implanted BCI.45
  • COMMAND enrolled six participants with severe chronic bilateral upper-limb paralysis and reported no device-related serious adverse events causing death or permanent disability over the 12-month evaluation period; secondary endpoints covered device migration and target-vessel patency.45
  • The Stentrode is delivered percutaneously via the jugular vein into the superior sagittal sinus adjacent to the motor cortex, paired with an implantable receiver-transmitter unit in the pectoral region; participants generated “Digital Motor Outputs” (thought-derived point-and-click commands) and could go home shortly after implantation.45
  • Synchron CEO and founder Tom Oxley, MD, PhD, is also an instructor in Mount Sinai’s Department of Neurosurgery and Director of Innovation at Mount Sinai BioDesign, tying the company closely to the institution.43
  • Mount Sinai Neurosurgery is now enrolling for the INTENT trial evaluating Synchron’s newest fully wireless endovascular BCI (Bluetooth-connected) specifically for people living with ALS, again performed by Dr. Majidi.6
  • In a reported world-first, Mount Sinai neurosurgeons (led by department chair Joshua Bederson, MD) used Precision Neuroscience’s Layer 7 Cortical Interface — a flexible array of 1,024 electrodes spanning ~1.5 cm², one-fifth the thickness of a human hair — for postoperative brain mapping.73
  • The Precision Neuroscience array was placed over the primary motor cortex of a 38-year-old meningioma patient, left in place for three days to monitor for seizures, then safely removed at bedside; the patient recovered and remained seizure-free, demonstrating reversible high-resolution cortical recording.7
  • Mount Sinai has positioned itself as a BCI hub through interdisciplinary symposia and by running both endovascular (Synchron Stentrode) and cortical-surface (Precision Neuroscience Layer 7) programs, spanning invasive and minimally invasive approaches.37

Footnotes

  1. https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiX0FVX3lxTE1uVUNvRUI5MjZfOXpPUTZNRmhSdmd4ZHQzdzg5WWtGcG9haVhTZmpETlo1V1NSQ0ItcTlPRGtGMTlLbTJzVXVsSFNMQjJIV1Z0RnRQanktMHFyUUo3V0V3?oc=5 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. https://reports.mountsinai.org/article/rehab2023-01-command ↩

  3. https://reports.mountsinai.org/article/neuro2025-01-brain-computer-interface ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240930433219/en/Synchron-Announces-Positive-Results-from-U.S.-COMMAND-Study-of-Endovascular-Brain-Computer-Interface ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000204195 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mountsinaineurosurgery_enrollment-open-for-mount-sinai-neurosurgery-activity-7462611785167179776-upfA ↩

  7. https://reports.mountsinai.org/article/neuro2026-07-precision-neuroscience-bederson ↩ ↩2 ↩3

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