Test subjects type fast – using only their brains

When a person suffers paralysis, a fully functioning brain can be trapped inside an immobile body. More and more, brain-computer-interface (BCI) technology is coming to the rescue in such cases, allowing paralyzed people to do everything from operating a speech computer to controlling an exoskeleton using only their thoughts. Now researchers who are part of an international consortium called BrainGate have achieved another milestone, having developed a way for people to type at a faster speed than ever before possible using their minds.

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8 words a minute, its a good starting point

A beginner touch typist can reach 30 wpm

Regular touch typists can reach up to 60+

Tau.Neutrino said:

8 words a minute, its a good starting point

A beginner touch typist can reach 30 wpm

Regular touch typists can reach up to 60+

“First is the implant. Unlike other BCI devices that are placed on either the scalp or the surface of the brain, the system used here is implanted inside the brain where 100 electrodes connect with the electrical activity of individual nerve cells in the motor cortex. The device, which is known as the BrainGate Neural Interface System, is a silicon chip, about the size of a baby aspirin, and the electrodes penetrate into the brain at roughly the thickness of a quarter.

The second part of the system is a series of algorithms developed by Shenoy’s lab that takes the signals received by the embedded chip, translates them into actions – in this case, moving a cursor around a computer screen and clicking on the desired letters “

I’d like to know more about the hardware and software involved. How does the user control 100 implanted electrodes to make them do what he/she wants?

Let’s see how many words in one minute I can manage on this Google keyboard on tablet.

Let’s see how many words in one minute I can manage on this Google keyboard on tablet. Let’s see how many words in one minute I can manage on this Google keyboard on tablet. Let’s see how many words I can manage on this … Only 22.wpm.

> Like to know more

These people are prolific authors. Not sure where to start reading about this.

“Clinical translation of a high-performance neural prosthesis”
“We translated a neural prosthetic system previously developed in animal model studies for use”
Nature Medicine 2015
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4805425/

“Virtual typing by people with tetraplegia using a self-calibrating intracortical brain-computer interface”
“Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) promise to restore independence for people with severe motor disabilities by translating decoded neural activity directly into the control of a computer. However, recorded neural signals can change over time.”
Science translational … 2015
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4765319/

“Assessment of brain–machine interfaces from the perspective of people with paralysis”
“One of the main goals of brain–machine interface (BMI) research is to restore function to people with paralysis. Currently, multiple BMI design features are being investigated, based on various input modalities (externally applied and surgically inserted”
Journal of neural … 2015
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4761228/

“Neural population dynamics in human motor cortex during movements in people with ALS”
“The prevailing view of motor cortex holds that motor cortical neural activity represents muscle or movement parameters. However, recent studies in non-human primates have shown that neural activity does not simply represent muscle or movement”
Elife, 2015
https://elifesciences.org/content/4/e07436

“Feedback control policies employed by people using intracortical brain–computer interfaces”
“When using an intracortical BCI (iBCI), users modulate their neural population activity to move an effector towards a target, stop accurately, and correct for movement errors. We call the rules that govern this modulation a ‘feedback control policy’.”
Journal of Neural …, 2016
https://web.stanford.edu/~shenoy/GroupPublications/WillettEtAlJNeuralEng2017.pdf

“Signal-independent noise in intracortical brain–computer interfaces causes movement time properties inconsistent with Fitts’ law
…, JP Miller, JM Henderson, KV Shenoy… – Journal of Neural …, 2017 – iopscience.iop.org
Do movements made with an intracortical BCI (iBCI) have the same movement time properties as able-bodied movements? Able-bodied movement times typically obey Fitts’ law: $\text {MT}= a+ b {{\log} _ {2}}(D/R) $(where MT is movement time, D is target “

Where to start?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrainGate

The sensor is in the form of a Multielectrode array which consists of 100 hair-thin electrodes that sense the electromagnetic signature of neurons firing in specific areas of the brain, for example, the area that controls arm movement. Device manufacturing by Blackrock Microsystems, who now manufactures the sensors and the data acquisition hardware.