Nature: Brain-computer interface helps patients with severe ALS patients communicate

Editing | Wang Duoyu typography | Shuiwen Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as ALS, is one of the five major terminal diseases identified by the World Health Organization (WHO).
A chronic, progressive degenerative disease of the trunk, limbs, and head and face muscles it innervates, often manifested as progressive aggravated muscle weakness, muscle atrophy, and fasciculation caused by combined damage to upper/lower motor neurons
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ALS is the most common type of motor neuron disease.
There are about 200,000 ALS patients in China alone.
Most of the patients are between the ages of 30 and 60, and there are more men than women
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There is currently no specific treatment for ALS, and the treatment is mainly to improve the quality of life of patients and delay the progression of the disease
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Famous physicist Stephen Hawking, "people's hero" Zhang Dingyu, and JD.
com vice president Cai Lei are all patients with ALS
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As the disease progresses, patients with ALS gradually lose control of the muscles of the whole body, so that they cannot communicate verbally
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For example, Hawking could tap the keyboard with his fingers at first, but after his fingers could not move, Intel developed a computer system for him that could recognize the movements of eyeballs and facial muscles and convert them into words to help Hawking communicate with the outside world
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And some patients with complete atresia who can no longer control their facial muscles and eye movements, they seem to be locked in their own body, but they still have consciousness and perception.
How can they communicate with the outside world? On March 22, 2022, the journal Nature Communications published a research paper titled: Spelling interface using intracortical signals in a completely locked-in patient enabled via auditory neurofeedback training
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The research team developed a method that uses a computer to decode letters from brain signals for communication in patients with complete atresia
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People who have lost the ability to move or speak can use a brain-computer interface to restore communication
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Research in this area focuses on maintaining communication skills in ALS patients
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Until now, methods have been developed to help ALS sufferers communicate using eye or facial muscle movements
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But once control of these muscles is lost, the patient loses the ability to communicate
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For the study, the research team developed an auditory neurofeedback system that can be implanted in a patient's brain.
The team tested a 34-year-old male patient with ALS who had lost control of his body muscles in a fully locked state.

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The results showed that after implanting the auditory neurofeedback system in the patient's brain, he was able to form words and phrases to communicate at a rate of one word per minute
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Patients can get auditory feedback of neural activity, and the research team instructed patients to match the frequency of the feedback tone to the target tone by controlling the rate of neural firing in the brain
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A change in discharge rate at the high or low end of a given range for more than 250 milliseconds was interpreted as "yes" or "no", respectively
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Patients can also adjust neural firing rates based on auditory feedback and select letters to form words and phrases to communicate their needs
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These findings enable verbal communication in patients in a fully locked-down state who are currently unable to communicate
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Before being extended to clinical use, further demonstration of its long-term nature, applicability in other patients, and the safety and efficacy of BCI are needed
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Paper link: https:// Open for reprinting, welcome to forward to Moments and WeChat groups