Reading the Ailing Brain
From: Scientific American - 11/2007 - page 91
By: Ingrid Wickelgren

With effective treatments for ALS still years away, researchers are
developing devices that can receive signals from paralyzed patients’ minds,
enabling such patients to communicate, perform basic computer functions and,
in some cases, operate prosthetic devices. Some of these so-called
braincomputer interfaces (BCIs) require surgically implanted electrodes,
which read the output of small clusters of neurons inside the brain’s motor
cortex, the brain’s movement-control center. 

Noninvasive BCIs, on the other hand, pick up the wavelike electrical activity
emanating from millions of neurons through electrodes affixed to a patient’s
scalp. Neuroscientists Jonathan Wolpaw, Theresa Vaughan and Eric Sellers of
the Wadsworth Center, part of the New York State Department of Health in
Albany, and their colleagues have developed such a BCI - essentially, a
brain-wave keyboard for ALS patients - that works by tapping into a brain
signal that turns up when something attracts a person’s attention. In the
Wadsworth system (see photo), 17 rows and columns in a grid of 72 letters,
numbers, punctuation marks and keyboard controls flash rapidly in sequence on
a computer screen while an ALS patient watches for the symbol or function he
wants. Each time the desired symbol or function flashes, the user’s brain
emits the characteristic wave, and a computer processes the wave’s timing and
other features to discern which character or function the individual is
trying to select. 

So far five ALS patients have used the Wadsworth BCI to write and converse.
One ALS-afflicted scientist uses it to run his research laboratory. Another
depends on the technology to convey simple but important requests and
information such as "Do not put sweaters on me" and "The dog peed on the
floor."  

From:
http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/114538/files/sad1107Aebi_no_figures.pdf
http://padova.fimmg.org/2007/SLA.pdf

Caption: Brain-computer interface in action

Links:
Jonathan R. Wolpaw
http://www.wadsworth.org/resnres/bios/wolpaw.htm

Brain-Computer Interfaces Come Home
http://www.nibib.nih.gov/HealthEdu/PubsFeatures/eAdvances/28Nov06

A case of mind over matter
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/02/a_case_of_mind_over_matter/

bciresearch.org
http://www.bciresearch.org/

Catch a (Brain) Wave
http://www.nibib.nih.gov/HealthEdu/PubsFeatures/eAdvances/21Oct04

Paralyzed use brain waves to move
http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2004-12-06-paralyzed-brain-waves_x.htm

Brainwave interface goes 2D
http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2005/020905/Brainwave_interface_goes_2D_020905.html

Computers obeying brain signals
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-04-03-brain-computer_x.htm

Wave of the Future
http://www.aan.com/elibrary/neurologynow/?event=home.showArticle&id=ovid.com:/bib/ovftdb/01222928-200703060-00026