SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 7, 2010 In an early step toward letting severely paralyzed people speak with their thoughts, University of Utah researchers translated brain signals into words using two grids of 16 microelectrodes implanted beneath the skull but atop the brain.
"We have been able to decode spoken words using only signals from the brain with a device that has promise for long-term use in paralyzed patients who cannot now speak," says Bradley Greger, an assistant professor of bioengineering.
Because the method needs much more improvement and involves placing electrodes on the brain, he expects it will be a few years before clinical trials on paralyzed people who cannot speak due to so-called "locked-in syndrome."
The Journal of Neural Engineering's September issue is publishing Greger's study showing the feasibility of translating brain signals into computer-spoken words.
The University of Utah research team placed grids of tiny microelectrodes over speech centers in the brain of a volunteer with severe epileptic seizures. The man already had a craniotomy temporary partial skull removal so doctors could place larger, conventional electrodes to locate the source of his seizures and surgically stop them.
Using the experimental microelectrodes, the scientists recorded brain signals as the patient repeatedly read each of 10 words that might be useful to a paralyzed person: yes, no, hot, cold, hungry, thirsty, hello, goodbye, more and less.
Later, they tried figuring out which brain signals represented each of the 10 words. When they compared any two brain signals such as those generated when the man said the words "yes" and "no" they were able to distinguish brain signals for each word 76 percent to 90 percent of the time.
When they examined all 10 brain signal patterns at once, they
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| Contact: Lee J. Siegel leesiegel@ucomm.utah.edu 801-581-8993 University of Utah Source:Eurekalert |
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