Research4 min read
Precision Neuroscience pools its first 70 patients into one map of the nervous system
A preprint combines recordings from a thin-film surface array placed at more than 100 sites, from motor cortex to the spinal cord, and reports real-time decoding of movement, speech and facial expression.
ByThe BCI Briefing
Evidence class: Reported claim
The short version
- The preprint pools recordings from the first 70 patients implanted with Precision's thin-film array, at more than 100 sites and twelve academic medical centres.
- Lined up across patients, the recordings separate neighbouring finger representations in motor cortex over 0.8 to 2 millimetres.
- It is not peer reviewed, and its abstract gives no decoding accuracy.
Precision Neuroscience posted the preprint on bioRxiv on 1 October and announced it a week later. It covers the first 70 patients in whom the company's thin-film surface array was placed, with recordings made during surgery and after it at twelve academic medical centres. In the same announcement the company said it has now implanted more than 100 patients.
The authors do not try to record the whole brain from one person. They place many shorter recordings in a common anatomical frame: more than 100,000 electrode placements over motor, sensory, language, auditory and associative cortex, and over the brainstem and spinal cord, which surface arrays have rarely reached.
Combined this way, the data reproduce the body map of motor cortex, with the fingers ordered from lateral to medial, and the familiar signatures of movement and speech in the beta and high-gamma bands. The paper also reports real-time decoding: from the hand area of motor cortex to drive a neuroprosthesis, and from ventrolateral cortex of spoken language, facial movements and facial expressions of emotion.
How solid is this
A preprint on bioRxiv, posted on 1 October 2026 and not yet peer reviewed. The figures here are from its abstract. The abstract describes the decoding results as initial feasibility and gives no accuracy or rate. The count of more than 100 patients is the company's own. Its array is cleared by the FDA for use of up to 30 days, and these are short-term recordings.
Preprint. A full manuscript shared publicly before peer review. Methods are open to scrutiny, but conclusions may change.
What to watch
- 01Peer review, and the decoding figures the abstract does not give.
- 02Chronic recordings in people, which the company's $250M round is meant to pay for.
- 03Whether other groups can use the atlas. The authors call it extensible but do not say how it will be shared.
This technology remains experimental and is not an established treatment. Access is limited to registered clinical studies.
Sources
- 01
PreprintbioRxiv1 Oct 2026Checked against source 11 Oct 2026
Not peer reviewed. Read at the level of its abstract. 48 authors; the corresponding author is at Precision Neuroscience. Recordings from the first 70 patients implanted with the company's thin-film array, at more than 100 locations.
- 02
Precision Neuroscience Unveils a New Map of the Human Nervous System (opens in a new tab)
Company reportedPrecision Neuroscience press release (via BioSpace)8 Oct 2026Checked against source 11 Oct 2026
Press release for the preprint. States that the number of patients implanted with the company's system has passed 100, and that the cohort came from twelve academic medical centres, which it does not name.
- 03
Hettick M et al. Nat Biomed Eng 2026;10(6):1206–1221 (opens in a new tab)
Peer reviewedNature Biomedical Engineering2 Oct 2025Checked against source 3 Oct 2026
DOI 10.1038/s41551-025-01501-w