Skip to main content

Innovative brain-reading cap allows 'locked-in' patients to communicate with doctors

brain reading cap screen shot 2017 02 01 at 19 12 41
Locked-in syndrome (LIS) refers to a condition in which patients have cognitive function, but are not able to move or communicate due to total paralysis.

Thanks to an exciting advance, however, some help may be on the way. As part of an international research project, doctors have able to use brain-reading technology to communicate with patients for the first time by asking a series of “yes” or “no” answers and then using computer algorithms to decode their thought patterns.

Related Videos

“In some cases, eye movement can be used for communication,” researcher Ujwal Chaudhary told Digital Trends. “However, once eye movement is gone for a person suffering from locked-in syndrome, there is no means of communication. That’s where we come in. We’ve developed a non-invasive functional near-infrared spectroscopy technique for communication.”

In a small scale study carried out at Germany’s University of Tübingen, four LIS patients were kitted out with these fNIRS non-invasive brain caps. The caps use infrared light to measure variations in blood flow to different regions of the brain.

To start with, the researchers asked the study’s participants questions like, “Is Berlin the capital of Germany?” This process lasted about one hour and consisted of a sample of 100-150 questions, to which the questioners already knew the answers. This allowed them to train their computer algorithm to recognize when a patient was answering in the affirmative or negative. According to the investigators, accuracy of the computer analysis is around 70 percent.

After they were satisfied with this number, the researchers then moved on to asking open questions, such as, “Would you like [a particular friend] to visit you today?” or, “Are you in pain at the moment?”

This is where the real value of the work comes into play — although the researchers aren’t stopping here. According to Chaudhary, the team next hopes to develop the work to allow LIS patients to form their own sentences.

This is something which is already possible for LIS sufferers who still have eye movement, since various eye-tracking tools available make it possible for them to select words or letters. But such tools cannot be used if patients are unable to move their eyes. The question, then, is how best to achieve a similar goal — and how to do so when you only have access to binary positive or negative brain signals.

“What we’re working on right now is a way of categorizing topics such as health, family, and food,” Chaudhary continued. “Each of these can be asked as ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions. If the patient answers ‘yes’ to talking about food, they could then answer questions like ‘are you hungry?’”

However, this will take longer to develop. In a separate interview, Niels Birbaumer, the neuroscientist who led the research, told Digital Trends he thinks it will require “another few years” of research to achieve. It may also mean more invasive methods being used for brain-reading.

“I think we will need to implant electrodes in the brain to be able to do this, because it is very hard for people to have the concentration to do this,” he said. “Right now, when we ask people to choose a particular word or letter they are not able to do so.”

Editors' Recommendations

The next big thing in science is already in your pocket
A researcher looks at a protein diagram on his monitor

Supercomputers are an essential part of modern science. By crunching numbers and performing calculations that would take eons for us humans to complete by ourselves, they help us do things that would otherwise be impossible, like predicting hurricane flight paths, simulating nuclear disasters, or modeling how experimental drugs might effect human cells. But that computing power comes at a price -- literally. Supercomputer-dependent research is notoriously expensive. It's not uncommon for research institutions to pay upward of $1,000 for a single hour of supercomputer use, and sometimes more, depending on the hardware that's required.

But lately, rather than relying on big, expensive supercomputers, more and more scientists are turning to a different method for their number-crunching needs: distributed supercomputing. You've probably heard of this before. Instead of relying on a single, centralized computer to perform a given task, this crowdsourced style of computing draws computational power from a distributed network of volunteers, typically by running special software on home PCs or smartphones. Individually, these volunteer computers aren't particularly powerful, but if you string enough of them together, their collective power can easily eclipse that of any centralized supercomputer -- and often for a fraction of the cost.

Read more
Why AI will never rule the world
image depicting AI, with neurons branching out from humanoid head

Call it the Skynet hypothesis, Artificial General Intelligence, or the advent of the Singularity -- for years, AI experts and non-experts alike have fretted (and, for a small group, celebrated) the idea that artificial intelligence may one day become smarter than humans.

According to the theory, advances in AI -- specifically of the machine learning type that's able to take on new information and rewrite its code accordingly -- will eventually catch up with the wetware of the biological brain. In this interpretation of events, every AI advance from Jeopardy-winning IBM machines to the massive AI language model GPT-3 is taking humanity one step closer to an existential threat. We're literally building our soon-to-be-sentient successors.

Read more
The best hurricane trackers for Android and iOS in 2022
Truck caught in gale force winds.

Hurricane season strikes fear into the hearts of those who live in its direct path, as well as distanced loved ones who worry for their safety. If you've ever sat up all night in a state of panic for a family member caught home alone in the middle of a destructive storm, dependent only on intermittent live TV reports for updates, a hurricane tracker app is a must-have tool. There are plenty of hurricane trackers that can help you prepare for these perilous events, monitor their progress while underway, and assist in recovery. We've gathered the best apps for following storms, predicting storm paths, and delivering on-the-ground advice for shelter and emergency services. Most are free to download and are ad-supported. Premium versions remove ads and add additional features.

You may lose power during a storm, so consider purchasing a portable power source,  just in case. We have a few handy suggestions for some of the best portable generators and power stations available. 

Read more