On paper, my interview with Casey Harrell looks like any other. I ask the questions, he answers them. He tells me about his background as a climate activist, his Southern roots and his daughter, who as a preschooler loved to dress up like a cheetah and roar around the house.
The transcript tells the story of our conversation. But between the lines is an entirely different story — the story of where Harrell’s words come from. Harrell started losing his ability to speak in his early 40s, nearly six years ago.
He talked to me using a brain implant that can decode his words directly from his thoughts. The device, called a brain-computer interface, is experimental. But it has transformed Harrell’s life.
And it could soon transform others. Advances in computing power and AI, lessons gleaned from patient experience and investments from neurotechnology companies are starting to yield real progress on brain-computer interfaces for people who can no longer talk. In other words, Harrell’s new voice might not be so singular in the future.
For years, Willsey says, scientists didn’t know whether attempts to decode speech would be successful; now, a body of research results points clearly to yes. The progressive neurodegenerative disease, which affects an estimated 35,000 people in the United States, kills nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control muscles. As the neural connections between Harrell’s brain and body began to falter, he gradually lost his ability to move his muscles, leaving him confined to his bed or a wheelchair.
Some of those dropped signals directed the muscles in his throat and mouth, the ones that allow him to speak. After that, it was “a slow-motion car crash” as fewer and fewer people could understand him. In a stroke of luck, Harrell learned through a family member about a clinical trial happening at the University of California, Davis — one that attempted to restore speech with a brain-computer interface.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
