"Mind-Reading" Technology May Help Paralyzed Patients Communicate Through Spelling

A brain-computer interface records “yes” and “no” answers in patients who lack any voluntary muscle movement.

Patients are said to be completely locked-in when their mental faculties are preserved but they are so paralysed that even eye movement is impossible.

To find a way of communicating with such individuals, a Swiss-led international team of scientists developed a form of thought reading based on a system that measures blood oxygen levels and electrical activity in the brain, vesti.ru reports.

Scientists have spent about three weeks on what to "train" the interface to capture "yes" and "no," with 70 percent accuracy. Then they began to communicate with patients with ALS on other topics. Experts asked them various questions.

Each question has been asked a dozen times. If the device has fixed the answer is "yes" to seven or more times, they took it as a correct answer. "One of our patients - a young girl She just 23 years old, -. Says Birbaumer -. She told us that she would like to see New York, so now her family is preparing for a joint trip Another woman would like to visit her brother in Spain.".

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