Breakthrough Communication with the Paralyzed

For the past two decades, neuroscientists have been looking for a way to take brain signals and translate them to messages. This is all to help paralyzed people whose only way to communicate is with blinking and facial movements. Scientists have made huge advancements in technology to detect the brain activity of a patient. Bettina Sorger of Maastricht University in the Netherlands has done research on this topic. She experimented on six healthy human and translated the signals of each into letters. Sorger said," This is not mind-reading. It's under the persons control, so it's more like a typewriter for the brain."

Each volunteer patient took about an hour to learn the machine and signal their thoughts. The scientists used massive MRI machines with complex medical technology, that scans the brain for the increase of blood flow in a certain region. The scanner then decodes the signals from the brain using a "data-mining" software that puts the signals into letters.

Researchers say that the most important part to this study is going to be able to communicate with the people whom are in acute care. Spinal cord injuries and brain related injuries account for nearly one million disabilities in the U.S. every year, and communication can only help the cause.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/story/2012-06-28/scientists-communicate-paralyzed/55894932/1

NOS Themes:

• Role of motivation and curiosity
• Importance of repeatability
• Science is collaborative 
• Science is based on evidence