[Reading Science] A Patient with 'Jeonsinmabi' Lou Gehrig's Disease Has Regained the Ability to Speak

Stanford Research Team in the US Reports Brain Chip Implant Study Results
Three Times Faster Speed Than Before, Enables Everyday Conversation

A 67-year-old American woman, Ms. A, recently experienced a 'miracle.' She had lost her speech ability due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) eight years ago. However, she was recently able to speak at a speed comparable to that of ordinary people after having a chip implanted in her brain. This was a benefit of the latest science that even the world-renowned genius Dr. Stephen Hawking, who died of the same disease in 2018, could not enjoy.

A 67-year-old female patient who was able to speak at a speed similar to that of an average person through the implantation of a brain neural chip. Photo source=MIT Technology Review video capture.

A research team at Stanford University in the United States published a paper with these findings on the preprint site bioRxiv on the 21st. The team implanted a chip capable of measuring brain waves into the brain of a 67-year-old female patient who had lost her speech ability due to ALS, which gradually weakens muscles over eight years, enabling her to communicate at a speed of 62 words per minute. This was about three times faster than similar existing technologies, setting a new record.

Before the chip implantation, the woman could make sounds but they were unclear. She could only communicate through writing with the help of devices like an iPad. However, after the chip implantation, she was able to express herself verbally at a slow but near-normal conversational speed.

Similar research had been conducted before. Experimental subjects were asked to imagine hand movements they wanted to perform, and researchers succeeded in decoding their brain waves in real time to move a cursor on a computer screen, select letters on a virtual keyboard, play video games, or control robotic arms.

The research team implanted a small chip in the motor cortex of the brain, which directly controls human movement. It can record the activity of dozens of neurons at once. The team identified brain wave patterns that appear when a person thinks about a certain movement. They focused their research on how the motor cortex works when a person tries to speak. They analyzed how the female patient in the experiment attempted to move her lips, tongue, and vocal cords when trying to speak. During this process, the team confirmed that the computer program could extract sufficient information from the neural signals sent by the patient’s motor cortex to understand what she intended to say.

Professor Philip Sabes of the University of California said, "This is an incredible advancement where technology to read human intentions through brain waves could move out of the laboratory and be prepared as a product for practical use," adding, "It is a speed that many people with speech disabilities desire."