At the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva, Switzerland, four completely paralyzed people suffering from advanced ALS were able to communicate thanks to a cap that measures changes in the oxygenation within the brain. These folks are effectively locked-in, not even having the ability to move their arms and relying on a ventilator for breathing. It has been a controversial matter whether patients in such a state are even able to think coherently, but this study seems to indicate that they continue to think and make decisions just fine.
The four patients wore caps that use transcranial near-infrared spectroscopy to peer into the brain and measure oxygen concentrations. The patients were asked questions, including personal ones that the researchers knew the answers to. The changes in oxygenation correlated more than seven out of ten times on answers to known questions and some answers were nearly consistently answered by the participants. One of the participants was asked whether his daughter can have permission to marry her boyfriend, and the reply was the same “No” nine out of ten times.
Most interestingly, these patients, who chose to continue living using a ventilator, were asked over and over again if they were happy, and they all answered quite resoundingly with a “Yes.”
This all bodes well for the future where we may have more nuanced communication with locked-in people than being able to ask Yes or No questions.
Study in PLOS Biology: Brain–Computer Interface–Based Communication in the Completely Locked-In State…
Via: Wyss Center…