"This is Pager, he's a nine year old macaque who had a Neuralink placed in each side of his brain about six weeks ago.''

This monkey is playing video games using just its mind

according to this video released by Elon Musk's Neuralink

Courtesy: Neuralink

''He's focused and he's playing entirely of his own volition. It's not magic. The reason Neuralink works is because it's recording and decoding electrical signals from the brain.''

''First, we calibrate the decoder by recording neural activity as Pager uses the joystick to move a cursor to targets presented on the screen. As he's playing this game we're wirelessly streaming in real time the firing rates from thousands of neurons to a computer. Using these data, we calibrate the decoder by mathematically modelling the relationship between patterns of neural activity and the different joystick movements they produce. After only a few minutes of calibration, we can use the output from the decoder to move the cursor instead of the joystick. Pager still moves the joystick out of habit, but as you can see, it's unplugged, he's controlling the cursor entirely with decoded neural activity.''

Founded in 2016, Neuralink aims to help cure neurological conditions

with what Musk has described as ''a Fitbit in your skull''

''Our goal is to enable a person with paralysis to use a computer or phone with their brain activity alone. Because they wouldn't be able to move a joystick, they would calibrate the decoder by imagining hand movements to target."

''Great game Pager. And what better reward for a monkey than a banana?"