Stroke survivor speaks again with help of an experimental brain-computer implant
Brain implant using artificial intelligence turns thoughts into speech in near real-time
Scientists have developed a device that can translate thoughts about speech into spoken words in real time.
Although it was still experimental, they hoped the brain-computer interface could someday help give voice to those unable to speak.
A new study described testing the device on a 47-year-old woman with quadriplegia who could not speak for 18 years after a stroke. Doctors implanted it in her brain during surgery as part of a clinical trial.
It “converts her intent to speak into fluent sentences”, said Gopala Anumanchipalli, a co-author of the study published Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Other brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, for speech typically have a slight delay between thoughts of sentences and computerised verbalisation. Such delays can disrupt the natural flow of conversation, potentially leading to miscommunication and frustration, researchers said.
This is “a pretty big advance in our field”, said Jonathan Brumberg of the Speech and Applied Neuroscience Lab at the University of Kansas, who was not part of the study.
A team in California recorded the woman’s brain activity using electrodes while she spoke sentences silently in her brain.