Allowing people with disabilities to talk by just thinking about a word, that's what UC Davis researchers hope to accomplish with new cutting-edge technology. It can be a breakthrough for people with ALS and other nonverbal conditions.
One UC Davis Health patient has been diagnosed with ALS, a neurological disease that makes it impossible to speak out loud. Scientists have now directly wired his brain into a computer, allowing him to speak through it using only his thoughts.
"It has been very exciting to see the system work," said Maitreyee Wairagkar, a UC Davis neuroprosthetics lab project scientist.
The technology involves surgically implanting small electrodes. Artificial intelligence can then translate the neural activity into words.
UC Davis researchers say it took the patient, who's not being publicly named, very little time to learn the technology.
"Within 30 minutes, he was able to use this system to speak with a restricted vocabulary," Wairagkar said.
It takes just milliseconds for brain waves to be interpreted by the computer, making it possible to hold a real-time conversation.
"[The patient] has said that the voice that is synthesized with the system sounds like his own voice and that makes him happy," Wairagkar said.
And it's not just words. The technology can even be used to sing.
"These are just very simple melodies that we designed to see whether the system can capture his intention to change the pitch," Wairagkar said. Previously, ALS patients would use muscle or eye movements to type on a computer and generate a synthesized voice. That's how physicist Stephen Hawking, who also had ALS, was able to slowly speak.
This new technology is faster but has only been used on one patient so far. Now, there's hope that these microchip implants could one day help other people with spinal cord and brain stem injuries.
"There are millions of people around the world who live with speech disabilities," Wairagkar said.
The UC Davis scientific study was just published in the journal "Nature," and researchers are looking for other volunteers to participate in the program.
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