How brain implants turn thoughts into speech

Casey Harrell lost his voice to ALS or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. As a volunteer in a clinical trial, he’s helping scientists test a brain-computer interface. Electrode arrays that are implanted in Casey’s brain send signals to nearby computers, where those signals are translated into words he intended to say.

Casey uses this system every day to talk with his wife, daughter, friends and work colleagues. The moment he realized that it worked was “pure joy,” Casey says. Even though the researchers scripted his words for that first test, “it was a profound moment,” he says.

Patients paralyzed from the neck down can manipulate robotic arms with their thoughts. The woman in this video is controlling a robot with her mind. The so-called BrainGate system relies on a sensor of electrodes implanted in the motor cortex of the brain.

Researchers hope by implanting electrodes in the brain it can read the brain signals meant to move the muscles involved in speaking, and translate the person’s intention to speak into comprehensive speech produced by a computer. Laura Sanders: Controlling things with your mind. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s definitely real.

Today, we’re going to explore what it’s like to communicate with a brain implant that decodes your thoughts and turns them into words. [voices] Hey mom, can I tell you something? The voice is absolutely an integral part of your identity. That added layer of it being you.

Sanders: From Science News, I’m Laura Sanders, and this is The Deep End, Talk to Me. Okay, so what is BrainGate? It’s an experimental system that connects electrodes that are implanted in a person’s brain to a nearby computer.