Imagine being unable to speak your native language after a stroke. Now imagine being able to communicate in both your native tongue and a second language with the help of a brain implant. This is the reality for Pancho, a stroke survivor who participated in a groundbreaking study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
Why it matters
Expressing yourself through speech is deeply connected to identity, especially for bilinguals like the study participant known as "Pancho." As a native Spanish speaker who learned English later, regaining his connection to both languages was the ultimate goal.
The study demonstrated that a brain implant with artificial intelligence could decode a person's intended speech and thoughts in two languages, laying the groundwork for restoring communication in multilingual people who have lost their ability to speak.
The study revealed that Spanish and English activated similar areas of Pancho's brain, suggesting that language processing might be more unified than previously thought.
A closer look
The study focused on Pancho, who suffered a stroke at 20 that paralyzed much of his body, leaving him unable to speak clearly. He learned English after his stroke, but Spanish remained his native tongue. Researchers implanted electrodes on his cortex to record neural activity, which was then translated into words on a screen.
How it works
- The team developed an AI system with separate modules for Spanish and English, training it on about 200 words that Pancho attempted to say.
- Each word created a unique neural pattern.
- When Pancho tried to say phrases, the AI system analyzed the neural patterns and generated English and Spanish translations.
The system correctly distinguished between Spanish and English based on the first word 88% of the time and decoded the correct sentence with an accuracy of 75%.
Why this is cool
This is another example of AI’s increasing ability to interpret our brainwaves, potentially unlocking an endless supply of new treatments and technologies.
For Pancho, it was life-changing. Being able to communicate through speech again, in both his native and second language, gave Pancho back a profound connection to his identity that a stroke had taken away.
Alexander Silva, the researcher, recounts
"After the first time we did one of these sentences, there were a few minutes where we were just smiling."
