A totally paralyzed man has been able to communicate whole sentences using a device that records your brain activity. The man was able to train his mind to use the devicewhich was implanted in his brain, ordering massages, soup and beer, and watching movies with his son.
It is the first time that a person with total paralysis has been able to communicate in this way
It is the first time that a person with total paralysissomeone conscious and cognitively capable but completely paralyzed, has been able to communicate this waysay the researchers behind the work.
Brain-computer interfaces record electrical signals inside a person’s brain and convert them into commands that control a device. In recent years, BCIs have enabled partially paralyzed people control prostheses or communicate a simple “yes” or “no” with thought alone. But this is the first time someone who is completely paralyzed and unable to even control her eye movements has used a BCI to communicate. complete sentences.
“It’s really remarkable to be able to reestablish communication with someone in a completely locked state.” Says Jaimie Henderson, a neurosurgeon at Stanford University, who was not involved in the work. “To me, that’s a huge breakthrough and obviously quite significant for the research participant.”
The man, who lives in Germany, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in August 2015, when he was 30 years old. ALS is a rare and progressive neurological disease that affects neurons involved on the move. At the end of the year, she was unable to speak or walk. Since July 2016, he has been dependent on a ventilator for breathing.
Started using an eye-tracking device to communicate in August 2016
Started using a device eye tracking to communicate in August 2016. The device monitors eye movements. Which allows users to select letters from a computer screen. But a year later, his condition had deteriorated and she could no longer keep her eyes fixed on one particular place.
The man and his family feared that he would eventually lose his ability to move the eyes, so they sought the help of Niels Birbaumer. which was part of the University of Tubingen, and Ujwal Chaudhary of ALS Voice gGmbH. A non-profit organization that offers BCI and other technologies to people who would not otherwise be able to communicate.
Upon meeting the man in February 2018, Chaudhary attempted to automate the communication system that the family was already using. The team attached an eye-tracking device to a computer software who read the colors and the numbers of the rows. Which allowed the man to select letters one at a time using his eye movements to spell words.
The man agreed to the procedure using eye movements
But as man lost more and more control over movements from his eyes, he also became less able to communicate using that device. “We proposed to implement [un electrodo]Chaudhary says. can be implanted small electrodes in the brain to directly record the electrical activity of brain cells.
The procedure, which tends to involve drill a hole into the skull and cut through the protective layers of the brain, carries a small risk of infection and brain damage. So it was the last resort, says Birbaumer.
“If the BCIs [no invasivos] and the eye-trackers no longer work, there is no other option”, he says.
The man agreed to the procedure using eye movements, says Chaudhary. His wife and sister also gave his consent. When the procedure was approved by an ethics committee and the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices in late 2019. The man had lost the ability to use the eye-tracking device.
In March 2019, the surgeons implanted two tiny electrode grids, each 1.5 millimeters wide, in the motor cortex of the man. A region in the upper part of the brain responsible for controlling movement.
The day after the electrode was implanted, the team began trying to help the man communicate.
The day after electrode was implanted, the team began trying to help the totally paralyzed man communicate. At first, the man was asked to imagine doing physical movements. This has helped other recipients control prosthetics and exoskeletons, and it’s the approach Elon Musk’s company Neuralink plans to take.
The idea is to get a reliable signal from the brain and translate it into some sort of command.
The team then introduced a software that mimicked the paper-based computer system that man had originally used to communicate with your family. The man would hear the word “yellow” or “blue” for example, to choose a block of letters to select from. Individual letters would then be played and you would use an ascending or descending tone to select or dismiss each one (see video).
In this way, the totally paralyzed man was soon able to communicate complete sentences.
One of the first sentences the man spelled translated to “guys, it works effortlessly.”
It is planned to develop a catalog of frequently used words
Chaudhary plans to develop a word catalog of frequent use that could eventually allow the software autocomplete the man’s words as you spell them, for example.
“There are many ways we can do it faster,” he says.
No one knows how long the electrodes will last in the brain of man. But other studies have found that similar electrodes they are still working five years after being implanted in other people.
“For a person who has absolutely no communication, even a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is potentially life-changing.”
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