US research team develops ‘brain implant’ to restore speech to paralyzed patients

Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Neuralink is being watched for innovation.introducing a brain chip“Recently, a team of researchers from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis Health) together with the BrainGate research group in the United States developed a device.”Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)” that helps patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or paralyzed patients communicate again.

“It’s hard not being able to talk. and discouraged It is like being in prison. Brain implant technology will help people live their lives and reintegrate into society. This is a major breakthrough in neurology,” said Casey Harrell, a 45-year-old ALS patient who participated in the clinical trial.

How the brain implant works

ALS, also known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease” is a disease that causes nerve cells that control body movement to decline. The patient will gradually lose the ability to stand, walk, use hands, and most importantly, speak because the muscles used in pronunciation do not respond. Although the brain can still function normally

Imagine that there are small electrical circuits in our brains that fire every time we think of speaking, even in ALS patients whose muscles cannot respond. But the circuit in the brain is still working. For this reason, the medical team has developed a “smart chip” with 256 tiny receptors inserted into the area of ​​the brain that controls speech.

When the patient intends to speak The chip captures these electrical signals in the brain. It is then forwarded to the computer to be converted into text. The computer then reads it in a natural voice. It uses a synthesis of real sounds recorded before the patient has symptoms.

Prof. explained. It uses four sets of tiny electrodes inserted into the “Precentral Gyrus” part of the brain, which is the speech control center.

Before taking part in the experiment Casey has weakness in both arms and legs. Speech was very difficult to understand. Someone has to be there to interpret the meaning.

“We use artificial intelligence to translate these signal patterns into small sound units, such as syllables, and then we create the words the patient wants to say. We don’t just read brain waves. Instead, we pick up signals when the brain is trying to get the muscles to work to speak.

I still remember the first time Casey saw his words appear correctly on the screen. He cried with joy. And we all cried as well,” said Prof. Dr David.

This system learns quickly. It takes just half an hour to recognize the first 50 words with 99.6% accuracy And when the vocabulary is increased to hundreds of thousands of words, Still 90% accurate after just over an hour of additional training. “This accuracy is even higher than many mobile speech conversion applications.”

After more than 32 weeks of testing, Casey was able to use the system to talk to family and friends both face-to-face and via video call, for a total of 248 hours.

Setting hope for the future

Prof. said. Dr. Leigh Hochberg, who is in charge of the research project, that patients who participate in the trial do not just want personal benefits. But I still want to see the research team able to develop a chip that is completely efficient. Until it can be used to help other paralyzed patients around the world Currently The BrainGate clinical trial continues to offer opportunities for patients to participate.

However, while the medical community around the world is monitoring the development of brain implants from many companies, whether Neuralink or other developers, the success of the BrainGate research team this time shows Brain-computer interface technology can be an innovation that helps patients in concrete ways.

reference: The New York Times and UC Davis Health