A brain-computer interface (BCI) technology has been unveiled that can decode a user's inner monologue in real time.
Published in Cell, the research found that BCI could translate a user's inner thoughts on command with around 74 percent accuracy, making a notable advance in helping patients with severe speech paralysis.
The device uses sensors implanted in brain regions that control movement to decode neural signals and translate them into actions such as operating a prosthetic hand.
Recent research shows that BCIs can even decode attempted speech among people with paralysis.
When users attempt to speak by activating the muscles involved in producing sounds, BCIs can interpret the corresponding brain activity and convert it into text, even if the spoken words are unintelligible.
In the latest study, four participants with severe speech paralysis were implanted with microelectrodes in the motor cortex, the region of the brain responsible for speaking.
Participants were asked to either attempt to speak or imagine saying a set of words, with the latter tending to show a weaker magnitude of activation overall.
Using AI to interpret their imagined words, they demonstrated that their BCI could decode imagined sentences from a vocabulary of up to 125,000 words.
Notably, the researchers developed a password-controlled mechanism to prevent the BCI from decoding inner speech unless temporarily unlocked with a chosen keyword.
