![\"music](\"https:\/\/www.digitalmusicnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/this-man-is-making-music-using-his-brain-implant-1024x576.png\")
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Galen Buckwalter and his wife Deborah of the LA-based punk band Siggy (Photo: Blackrock Neurotech)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Music A quadriplegic man is using his brain implant to produce musical tones by assigning them to different movements identified by six chips in his brain.<\/h2>\n
Galen Buckwalter has been a quadriplegic since a diving accident when he was 16 left him paralyzed from the chest down. The 69-year-old research psychologist had the opportunity to get a brain implant in 2024 as part of a study at Caltech, and he was thrilled at the prospect. Now, not only can he feel sensation in his limbs that he had lost, but he can operate a computer with his mind and is even making music using his thoughts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Made by Blackrock Neurotech, the six chips in his brain read activity from his neurons and decode movement intentions. The brain-computer interface (BCI) uses technology being developed by several companies, including Paradromics, Synchron, and Elon Musk\u2019s Neuralink, to help restore movement and communication in people with severe motor impairments.<\/p>\n But Buckwalter and other recipients of this technology have shown that it can be used in a variety of ways that aren\u2019t just functional. Others have been able to use their BCI as an outlet for creative expression, such as making digital art with their thoughts<\/a>.<\/p>\nBuckwalter is a longtime musician and a member of the Los Angeles-based punk band Siggy. He\u2019s been working with Caltech graduate student Sean Darcy, who developed an algorithm to enable him to create musical tones on the computer with his mind. He used some of the tones he\u2019s composed in the lab in a song called \u201cWirehead,\u201d which is the name of the band\u2019s latest album, released last month.<\/h4>\n