{"id":299717,"date":"2021-07-15T15:48:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T12:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/brain-implant-turns-paralyzed-mans-thoughts-into-speech\/"},"modified":"2021-07-15T15:48:21","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T12:48:21","slug":"brain-implant-turns-paralyzed-mans-thoughts-into-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/brain-implant-turns-paralyzed-mans-thoughts-into-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"#Brain implant turns paralyzed man’s thoughts into ‘speech’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Brain implant turns paralyzed man’s thoughts into ‘speech’<\/strong>”
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While Elon Musk\u2019s brain-chip startup screws around with game<\/a>r monkeys, another team of scientists has reached a true milestone in neuroprosthetics: enabling a man who can\u2019t speak to generate sentences with his mind.<\/p>\n

Researchers at the\u00a0University of California San Francisco (UCSF)<\/span>\u00a0achieved the feat using an implant that decodes full sentences from brain activity.<\/p>\n

They tested the system on a man in his late 30s, who suffered a brainstem stroke in his teens that left him unable to talk. He now communicates by using a pointer attached to a baseball cap to poke letters on a screen.<\/p>\n

The man, who asked to be referred to as\u00a0BRAVO1, was the first participant in a clinical trial of the new tech.<\/p>\n

The researchers first surgically implanted a high-density electrode array over BRAVO1\u2019s speech motor cortex. The implant was then connected to a computer via a port in his head.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over 22 hours spread across several months, the team recorded BRAVO1\u2019s brain activity while\u00a0he attempted to say a list of 50 common words, such as \u201cwater,\u201d \u201cfamily,\u201d and \u201cgood.\u201d This vocabulary could collectively generate more than 1,000 sentences.<\/span><\/p>\n

As he spoke, custom neural network models distinguished between the neurological signals to identify which words he was trying to say. Between them, they could collectively generate more than 1,000 sentences.<\/p>\n

BRAVO1 was then asked\u00a0<\/span>to say different short sentences composed of the 50 words. The words were then decoded from his brain activity onto a screen.<\/p>\n

Next, the team tried a question-and-answer test. When they asked him, \u201cHow are you today?\u201d his response, \u201cI am very good,\u201d app<\/a>eared on the screen.<\/span><\/p>\n

The team believes this is the first time that the brain activity of a paralyzed person who can\u2019t speak has been decoded into full words.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows strong promise to restore communication by tapping into the brain\u2019s natural speech machinery,\u201d said\u00a0UCSF neurosurgeon Edward Chang.<\/p>\n