Student question: Did your body reject the implant at all, over time?

In fact it was quite the opposite. Ah, the implant was in for just over three months and one of the things we were interested in was would the body reject it? In fact the opposite happened. When the surgeons came to take it out, um, essentially I was told this is going to be a ten minute operation. We’ll just open up, take the implant out, we’ll all go and have a cup of coffee. In fact the operation to take it out it lasted almost an hour because when they opened up my arm, in fact tissues, body tissues had grown around the implant and pulled it in position. It was exactly where it had been placed. It was in excellent condition but the body had made a stronger physical link with it than anyone had expected. So both, as the gentleman behind you I was answering about the signals, mentally my brain had tuned in, so mentally I’d had a better link over the three months but also physically. Now the question there for me is, well why had there, how had this physical link happened? The only answer I can come to is that the brain is, it’s an important processing mechanism, ah and it was making decisions that affected lower down in the body that said this implant stuff is good, this is, I’m enjoying this, let’s make the link stronger, because there’s no local explanation in terms of the cells around the implant. So it was actually, um, far from being rejected, it was accepted in a very positive way, which I think opens up all sorts of hope.