Paradromics Implants Brain Chip in First Human Patient for Speech Restoration
Paradromics, a brain-computer interface (BCI) startup, has successfully implanted its Connexus brain-chip device into a human patient. The procedure, conducted in early June by a team of doctors at the University of Michigan, involved a Michigan woman suffering from a motor neuron disease that impairs her speech. The company aims to restore her ability to communicate by translating brain signals related to speech into text or synthesized speech via a computer.
Paradromics, a brain-computer interface (BCI) startup, announced the first human implantation of its Connexus brain-chip device in early June. The procedure was performed by a team of doctors from the University of Michigan on a woman who has difficulty speaking due to a motor neuron disease. The operation, part of an FDA-approved clinical study at University of Michigan Health, lasted approximately four hours.
Paradromics founder and CEO Matt Angle stated that the patient is now recovering at home. The company, based in Austin and founded in 2015, seeks to use BCIs to restore lost human functions. The Connexus device is designed to assist individuals with severe motor impairments in communicating through a computer by recording brain signals associated with speech.
Rather than biologically repairing vocal cords or mouth muscles, the implant records neural activity when the person attempts to speak. This activity is then translated by software into text or synthesized speech on a computer. Angle anticipates testing of the device will begin in the coming weeks, depending on the participant's recovery, with the goal of training her to communicate via the computer.
The Connexus device features a small implant, about the size of a dime, which sits on the brain's surface. It contains 421 tiny platinum-iridium microwires, each less than half the diameter of a human hair, that insert into brain tissue. Dr. Matthew Willsey, a neurosurgeon at the University of Michigan who led the procedure, noted that the device also includes extension leads running under the skin to a transceiver implanted beneath the left clavicle, which communicates wirelessly with an external receiver.
The Michigan woman will be evaluated over a six-year period. During the first year, Paradromics plans to collect data on safety, words per minute, vocabulary size, and the amount of usable data the device can extract from brain signals per second. Paradromics is a competitor to Elon Musk's Neuralink.
(Source: Business Insider)
