Groundbreaking Device Helps Paralyzed Man Speak Again

American researchers successfully developed a neuroprosthetic device meant to translate a paralyzed man’s brain waves into speech, giving hope to thousands of people who have lost the ability to talk.

“This is an important technological milestone for a person who cannot communicate naturally,” says David Moses, a postdoctoral engineer at the University of California San Francisco, and one of the lead authors of the study. “It demonstrates the potential for this approach to give a voice to people with severe paralysis and speech loss.”

The 36-year-old patient who suffers from anarthria – the inability to speak intelligibly despite having fully functioning cognitive function – had high-density electrodes surgically implanted over his speech motor cortex. The team recorded his neural activity as the patient was trying to say each of the 50 words essential to his life. The results appeared on screen, and the system decoded up to 18 words per minute with a median accuracy of 75%.