A 2017 photo provided by the University of California, San Francisco, shows neurosurgeon Dr Edward Chang reflected in a computer monitor displaying brain scans as he performs surgery at UCSF. In a medical first, researchers, led by Chang, harnessed the brain waves of a man paralysed and unable to speak for 15 years – and turned what he intended to say into sentences on a computer screen. — UCSF via AP
In a medical first, researchers harnessed the brain waves of a paralysed man unable to speak – and turned what he intended to say into sentences on a computer screen.
It will take years of additional research but the study, reported Wednesday, marks an important step toward one day restoring more natural communication for people who can’t talk because of injury or illness.
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A 2017 photo provided by the University of California, San Francisco, shows neurosurgeon Dr Edward Chang reflected in a computer monitor displaying brain scans as he performs surgery at UCSF. In a medical first, researchers, led by Chang, harnessed the brain waves of a man paralysed and unable to speak for 15 years – and turned what he intended to say into sentences on a computer screen. — UCSF via AP
A June 7, 2019 photo provided by the University of California, San Francisco, shows Chang, right, and postdoctoral scholar David Moses work at UCSF's Mission Bay campus. ‘Most of us take for granted how easily we communicate through speech,’ says Chang, a neurosurgeon UCSF. ‘It’s exciting to think we’re at the very beginning of a new chapter, a new field’ to ease the devastation of patients who lost that ability. — UCSF via AP
A 2020 photo provided by the University of California, San Francisco, shows researcher David Moses works with clinical trial participant ‘Bravo 1’ to record brain activity while he attempted to produce words and sentences. Fifteen years ago, he suffered a brain-stem stroke that caused widespread paralysis and robbed him of speech. — UCSF via AP
