Researchers have successfully installed a brain implant that can convert brain waves into speech. That’s according to a Nature research paper published earlier this week.
The implant is described by researchers as an “instantaneous voice-synthesis neuroprosthesis”, and also referred to as a “brain-computer interface”. And it is allowing a man who lost his speech due to motor neuron disease to communicate again.
Motor neuron disease, also known as ALS, has no known cure. The condition causes patients to gradually lose control of their neurons that control muscle contractions, and this can include control of the voice.
The patient in this study, called T15 in the research report, first experienced ALS symptoms five years prior. He currently has lost his speech and movement in his extremities, and is dependent on care.
Researchers implanted 256 hair-thin electrodes into T15’s ventral precentral gyrus, a band of brain tissue that runs across the top of the head. T15’s neural activity was then recorded as he watched text on a screen and attempted to sound out the words. An AI deep-learning model then matched the neural activity recordings to the words themselves.
A special feature of the experiment was that the team was able to achieve very low latency: about 10 milliseconds from brain wave to audio. This allowed T15 to “learn” to speak again, even interjecting in conversations with sounds, in addition to the proper, fully-formed words that had been modelled by the screen text-to-AI process.
The trial was part of a series of studies known as BrainGate2, in which a research team based at Massachusetts General Hospital has been experimenting with these “neural prosthetics” since 2009.
The BrainGate2 research also appears to be far in advance of the much-hyped Neuralink research backed by Elon Musk. In a rather secretive press release last September, the Musk-backed company claimed its patient could control a computer cursor with their mind.
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