Communicating can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for someone left mute by paralysis. Although there are existing devices that help paralyzed individuals speak, they are often inefficient for communication and tiresome for the user. This is the first to translate brain waves at the rate of natural speech.

"The most significant thing is that this shows it would be possible for someone who is paralyzed to speak in real-time rather than going through a painful typing process," lead researcher Frank Guenther said in an interview with MSNBC. "This communication is very important because these people are completely locked out from the rest of the world."

Guenther and his team tested the electrode on a 26 year-old male volunteer with locked-in syndrome, the result of a brain stem stroke. Individuals with this disorder are aware of their surroundings and can understand and react mentally, but are physically unable to respond.

The device, designed for permanent implantation without the risk of infection, is a neurotrophic electrode. The electrode is implanted in the speech-related motor cortex, an area of the brain responsible for speech planning and synthesis. After 3—4 months neurites attach to a portion of the device, allowing signals to be transmitted from the brain into the electrode. These signals are then transmitted to a computer that translate brain waves into recognizable, audible speech.

Because it is extremely difficult to differentiate the neural fluff from intentional cognition, determining which frequencies represent which sounds is a very timely process. As of now, only vowel sounds have been quickly and accurately produced. The device used for the trial had just three wires, however, and researchers believe additional wires may result in greater speech recognition capabilities.

“Our results support the feasibility of neural prostheses that may have the potential to provide near-conversational synthetic speech output for individuals with severely impaired speech motor control. They also provide an initial glimpse into the functional properties of neurons in speech motor cortical areas.”

Visit Healia's Stroke Community, or read the full study online at PLoS ONE.