ALS is a horrible disease with an impossible name and it's sometimes known as Lou Gehrig's Disease because he was a famous baseball player who was destroyed by the disease. In the case of the research subject in this study, she was paralyzed and unable to speak.
Get the Kleenex, matey mates, as they found a way she could. (Science Daily: Paralyzed ALS patient operates speech computer with her mind)
I'll roam about finding science and I like to think I find the coolest stuff but this research goes to another dimension of coolness because she had not previously been able to speak at home and now she's the first one in the world with this predicament who can.
At UMC Utrecht, a brain implant has been placed in a patient enabling her to operate a speech computer with her mind. The researchers and the patient worked intensively to get the settings right. She can now communicate at home with her family and caregivers via the implant. That a patient can use this technique at home is unique in the world. This research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
This research is part of the Utrecht NeuroProsthesis (UNP) project conducted by the UMC Utrecht Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, and is funded by technology foundation STW. The implant itself was provided by one of the R&D departments of medical technology company Medtronic.
Get the Kleenex, matey mates, as they found a way she could. (Science Daily: Paralyzed ALS patient operates speech computer with her mind)
I'll roam about finding science and I like to think I find the coolest stuff but this research goes to another dimension of coolness because she had not previously been able to speak at home and now she's the first one in the world with this predicament who can.
At UMC Utrecht, a brain implant has been placed in a patient enabling her to operate a speech computer with her mind. The researchers and the patient worked intensively to get the settings right. She can now communicate at home with her family and caregivers via the implant. That a patient can use this technique at home is unique in the world. This research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
- Science Daily
See, I'm tellin' you. Shoulda got some Kleenex.
Providing this capability required surgery and implantation of their special device in her brain. Given what it promised or at least suggested, I imagine she did not mind.
How about some Kumbaya on this one, huh?
Yeah, I'm tellin' you. There's science and then there's pure fuckin' magic. This appears to be the latter. That it went into the New England Journal of Medicine shows it's being taken quite seriously and with high exposure.
I've worked with speech therapy and in a deeply personal way. It was nothing approaching this kind of research but I do have some simpatico with trying to help someone you love when they're screwed beyond all imagination by a similar affliction. The only way these researchers could have topped what they did this time is if had they cured her on the spot. See above about PFM.
Ed: what is PFM?
Pure Fucking Magic and the term is used often in data processing when someone doesn't know what fixed a problem. In this case I have no idea how they did it except they stuck something in her head and it worked. That's close enough to PFM for me.
And it gets more magical:
The patient operates the speech computer by moving her fingers in her mind. This changes the brain signal under the electrodes. That change is converted into a mouse click. On a screen in front of her she can see the alphabet, plus some additional functions such as deleting a letter or word and selecting words based on the letters she has already spelled. The letters on the screen light up one by one. She selects a letter by influencing the mouse click at the right moment with her brain. That way she can compose words, letter by letter, which are then spoken by the speech computer. This technique is comparable to actuating a speech computer via a push-button (with a muscle that can still function, for example, in the neck or hand). So now, if a patient lacks muscle activity, a brain signal can be used instead.
See, I'm tellin' you. Shoulda got some Kleenex.
Providing this capability required surgery and implantation of their special device in her brain. Given what it promised or at least suggested, I imagine she did not mind.
How about some Kumbaya on this one, huh?
Yeah, I'm tellin' you. There's science and then there's pure fuckin' magic. This appears to be the latter. That it went into the New England Journal of Medicine shows it's being taken quite seriously and with high exposure.
I've worked with speech therapy and in a deeply personal way. It was nothing approaching this kind of research but I do have some simpatico with trying to help someone you love when they're screwed beyond all imagination by a similar affliction. The only way these researchers could have topped what they did this time is if had they cured her on the spot. See above about PFM.
Ed: what is PFM?
Pure Fucking Magic and the term is used often in data processing when someone doesn't know what fixed a problem. In this case I have no idea how they did it except they stuck something in her head and it worked. That's close enough to PFM for me.
And it gets more magical:
The patient operates the speech computer by moving her fingers in her mind. This changes the brain signal under the electrodes. That change is converted into a mouse click. On a screen in front of her she can see the alphabet, plus some additional functions such as deleting a letter or word and selecting words based on the letters she has already spelled. The letters on the screen light up one by one. She selects a letter by influencing the mouse click at the right moment with her brain. That way she can compose words, letter by letter, which are then spoken by the speech computer. This technique is comparable to actuating a speech computer via a push-button (with a muscle that can still function, for example, in the neck or hand). So now, if a patient lacks muscle activity, a brain signal can be used instead.
- Science Daily
Note: see the article for more detail since this is not all of it.
Maybe you think that's too slow and difficult but it has multiple benefits with one being it gives the patient a sense of control when otherwise much of it feels like it has evaporated. The therapeutic potential is immense and it's just ...
Ed: Kumbaya?
Exactly.
And it may be coming to someone you know who needs it.
If the implant proves to work well in three people, the researchers hope to launch a larger, international trial. Ramsey: "We hope that these results will stimulate research into more advanced implants, so that some day not only people with communication problems, but also people with paraplegia, for example, can be helped."
This research is part of the Utrecht NeuroProsthesis (UNP) project conducted by the UMC Utrecht Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, and is funded by technology foundation STW. The implant itself was provided by one of the R&D departments of medical technology company Medtronic.
- Science Daily
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