Brain Implant Restores Bilingual Communication
“[A clinical trial], based at the University of California, San Francisco, has now inadvertently revealed something about how the brain handles language, because one of the patients enrolled in the trial was bilingual, using English and Spanish. By tracking activity in the area of the brain where the intention to speak gets translated into control over the vocal tract, researchers found that both languages produce consistent signals in this area, so training the system to pick up English phrases would help improve its recognition of Spanish. . . . . Part of a clinical trial called BRAVO (brain-computer interface for restoration of arm and voice), it involved placing relatively simple implants (128 electrodes) into the motor region of the brain—the part that translates intentions to perform actions into the signals needed to trigger muscles to execute them.” MORE
Image Credit: Bioethics Education