Breakthrough brain device helps paralysed individuals talk
speech faster, more accurately and covering larger vocabulary than existing technologies, the researchers said.
People with neurological disorders, including brainstem stroke or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often face speech loss due to paralysis of muscles.
Previous studies have shown that it is possible to decode speech from the brain activities of a person with paralysis, but only in the form of text and with limited speed, accuracy and vocabulary.
The latest findings, published in two papers in the journal Nature, demonstrate a BCI that collects the neural activity of single cells with an array of fine electrodes inserted into the brain, and trained an artificial neural network to decode intended vocalisations.
With the help of the device, a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis was able to communicate at an average rate of 62 words per minute, which is 3.4 times as fast as the previous record for a similar device and moves closer to the speed of natural conversation (around 160 words per minute).
The BCI achieved a 9.1 per cent word error rate on a 50-word vocabulary, which is 2.7 times fewer errors than the previous state-of-the-art speech BCI from 2021.
A 23.8 pe cent word error rate was achieved on a 125,000-word vocabulary.
In another study, the researchers developed a BCI based on a different method for accessing brain activity, using nonpentrating electrodes that sit on the surface of the brain and detect the activity of many cells across sites over the entire speech cortex.
This BCI decodes brain signals to generate three outputs simultaneously: text, audible speech and a speaking avatar.
The researchers trained a deep-learning model to decipher neural data collected from a patient with severe
