Some American scientists have managed the business of reproducing words with electrodes, by analyzing the brain activity of patients. This technique is still imperfect and experimental, but it marks a great advance in knowledge of the processes involved in understanding language, and promises many applications.

The researchers plan to include a voice to people unable to pronounce the sounds, as after a stroke, for example, by “reading” in their brains that want to pronounce the words.

The study was conducted by Brian Pasley, a young neuroscientist at the University of California at Berkeley, on 15 patients who underwent brain surgery for the treatment of epilepsy. During these interventions, patients may spend several days with a network of electrodes on the exposed brain to locate the precise area that causes their seizures. Scientists have placed their electrode arrays on a very specific part of the temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex, a region involved in processing auditory signals. “We took advantage of a unique opportunity to characterize how the brain can decipher the sounds of language,” says the lead author of the study published this week in the online journal PLoS Biology. Words and sentence fragments were read to patients while electrodes recorded the electrical activity of neurons.

Brian Pasley then developed software that happens to synthesize the sound of words that was read from the records of the cortex. To verify that the system worked properly, and not only for a limited number of words, read a new set of words in fifteen patients, leaving the computer to recreate the sounds heard by the brain. The results are rather mixed, some words are more recognizable than others, but they are very encouraging.

“I thought it would not work, but Brian (Pasley) was able to do, told The Guardian Bob Knight, director of the Institute of Neurosciences, University of California at Berkeley, where he conducted the study. His program is been able to reproduce the sound that was heard by the patient and able to recognize the words, even if is far from perfect. ”

The researchers who participated in this study hope for many future applications, but also want to avoid triggering fantasies, saying that their technique does not allow potential spies to directly read the thoughts of an individual.         To get a clear enough signal, because the electrodes must be implanted directly on the brain surface, and the experience could not work through the skull. In addition, brain activity and decoded only to process audio signals transmitted from the ear not, other cognitive functions more advanced.

Source: www.lefigaro.fr

Discourse recreated through the analysis of the brain

Some American scientists have managed the business of reproducing words with electrodes, by analyzing the brain activity of patients. This technique is still imperfect and experimental, but it marks a great advance in knowledge of the processes involved in understanding language, and promises many applications.

The researchers plan to include a voice to people unable to pronounce the sounds, as after a stroke, for example, by “reading” in their brains that want to pronounce the words.

The study was conducted by Brian Pasley, a young neuroscientist at the University of California at Berkeley, on 15 patients who underwent brain surgery for the treatment of epilepsy. During these interventions, patients may spend several days with a network of electrodes on the exposed brain to locate the precise area that causes their seizures. Scientists have placed their electrode arrays on a very specific part of the temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex, a region involved in processing auditory signals. “We took advantage of a unique opportunity to characterize how the brain can decipher the sounds of language,” says the lead author of the study published this week in the online journal PLoS Biology. Words and sentence fragments were read to patients while electrodes recorded the electrical activity of neurons.

Brian Pasley then developed software that happens to synthesize the sound of words that was read from the records of the cortex. To verify that the system worked properly, and not only for a limited number of words, read a new set of words in fifteen patients, leaving the computer to recreate the sounds heard by the brain. The results are rather mixed, some words are more recognizable than others, but they are very encouraging.

“I thought it would not work, but Brian (Pasley) was able to do, told The Guardian Bob Knight, director of the Institute of Neurosciences, University of California at Berkeley, where he conducted the study. His program is been able to reproduce the sound that was heard by the patient and able to recognize the words, even if is far from perfect. ”

The researchers who participated in this study hope for many future applications, but also want to avoid triggering fantasies, saying that their technique does not allow potential spies to directly read the thoughts of an individual. To get a clear enough signal, because the electrodes must be implanted directly on the brain surface, and the experience could not work through the skull. In addition, brain activity and decoded only to process audio signals transmitted from the ear not, other cognitive functions more advanced.

Source: www.lefigaro.fr