Brain Implant Helps Fully Paralyzed Man Communicate In Huge Breakthrough

A brain implant allowed a fully paralyzed man suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to communicate with his family in a scientific breakthrough.

A study published in the journal Nature Communications via Science.org reported an unidentified 36-year-old man was able to communicate in full sentences after receiving microchip implants.

“People have really doubted whether this was even feasible,” Mariska Vansteensel, a researcher at the University Medical Center Utrecht who was not involved in the study, via Science.org.

The patient was initially diagnosed with ALS, a rare nervous system disease leading to the loss of muscle control in 2015 and had since lost his ability to speak.

He began working with researchers at the University of Tübingen in Germany in 2018 when he still had the ability to communicate with his eyes and gave his consent for the implant to maintain communication with his family.

Researchers implanted two 3.2 millimeters wide square electrode arrays into the part of the brain that controls movement and -- after nearly three months of unsuccessful efforts -- later tried neurofeedback.

Researchers played an audible tone at different pitches and speeds and, by day 12, the man was able to match it to a target pitch.

The man produced his first full sentence three weeks into the system, requesting for his caregivers to reposition him.

During the next year, the man communicated several full sentences including “Goulash soup and sweet pea soup,” “I would like to listen to the album by TOOL loud” and “I love my cool son.”

You can read more on the breakthrough findings here.