‘I Have a Lot to Say’: Brain Implant Helps a Disabled Patient Speak

Well|‘I Have a Lot to Say’: Brain Implant Helps a Disabled Patient Speak

In a step forward for the cutting-edge field of brain-computer interfaces, a patient with a paralyzing neurological disorder used a brain implant to converse in real time, even when she was simply thinking about what to say, a company said it would announce on Monday.

The development, by the company Paradromics, marks the latest advance for these experimental devices, known as B.C.I.s — systems that involve implanting electrodes in the brain that read neurological signals and decode those signals through artificial intelligence.

The 68-year-old Michigan woman, who has lost most of her speaking ability, was able to use the device to have spontaneous conversations via a computer-generated voice, including on the phone with her grandchildren. When she physically tried to speak, her brain generated signals that were read by the electrodes, transmitted through A.I. and displayed on the computer screen, which spoke the words aloud. The system could also produce speech when the woman imagined what to say without moving her speaking muscles.

Because the Paradromics system is wireless and doesn’t require the patient to be connected by a cord to a computer, experts said, it offers a demonstration of how patients who have lost the ability to speak might be able to eventually use the technology in their daily lives, greatly improving their ability to communicate with family, friends and co-workers.

The woman, the first patient in the Paradromics clinical trial, was implanted with the company’s Connexus B.C.I. system, which contains more than 400 electrodes, in June at University of Michigan Health.

The trial will include 10 patients around the country with various disorders that cause speech and limb paralysis, such as stroke and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, said Dr. William Marks, chief clinical officer of Paradromics.