BrainGate Neural Interface System Enables Paralyzed Patient to Type Six Words Per Minute

The BrainGate neural interface system was introduced almost a decade ago. The interface helps severely disabled people control robotic arms and on-screen cursors and regain a bit of independence. Now scientists from a variety of academic institutions around the United States are reporting in Nature Medicine on a new typing world record set by two people with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Using the BrainGate2 brain-computer interface, by simply looking at a screen and thinking about letters displayed on it in a unique way, the patients attained a typing rate of six words per minute. The researchers note that this is about double the speed of any previous similar study linking the brain directly to a computer typing mechanism.

The BrainGate research team includes leading neurologists, neuroscientists, engineers, computer scientists, neurosurgeons, mathematicians, and other researchers. This diverse and collaborative team creates and tests the devices that are ushering in a new era of transformative neurotechnologies.

The experiment was reported in Nature Medicine, was the latest from a team testing a neural system called BrainGate2.



Source-Medindia