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Mind Reading Scientists recognize language from human brain waves
German researchers have succeeded in directly reconstructing sounds, words and sentences from brainwaves. People with Locked-in-Syndrome could enable this in the future a "linguistic communication", so the scientists. US researchers came to similar conclusions years ago.
Complete sets of brainwaves are reconstructed
Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) were able to reconstruct sounds, words and sentences directly from brainwaves. Data from the brainwaves of seven epilepsy patients in the USA were analyzed as reported by the news agency dpa: During the speech, they had an electrode network directly on the cerebral cortex of the brain, which was already exposed for its epilepsy treatment. It is reported that such specific recordings are currently not possible with electrodes placed on the head from the outside and thus measuring the electrical activity of the brain.
Image: psdesign1-fotolia "Watching the brain speak"
Computer science professor Tanja Schultz said: "For the first time, we can observe the brain as we speak." Now scientists can practically see how the brain plans the speech and then activates the muscles of the articulating organs by means of the neurons in the cerebral cortex before the actual language becomes audible. With the help of colors, the activities were made visible: "The higher the activity, the hotter the color," explained Schultz. The researchers publish their findings in the journal "Frontiers in Neuroscience".
Understand without hearing
Previously, patients were asked to speak certain texts, such as a speech by former US President John F. Kennedy, or simple nursery rhymes. The scientists did not know at first which sounds were spoken when. With the help of the measured brain waves they created databases with prototypes of about 50 different sounds. Then, based on algorithms, it was possible to understand what was said based solely on the brain waves. Sounds are considered in the context of words and entire sentence phrases. "We get beautiful results that are far from the quality of the acoustic speech recognition in the quality, but are already much better than if you advise," said Schultz.
Hope for patients with Locked-in-Syndrome
However, the small database of only seven patients, each with a maximum of five minutes of speech, has been a sticking point in four-year research. The analyzes should therefore be expanded. It is said that in addition to a better understanding of language processes, the so-called brain-to-text could also be "a building block to enable lock-in patients in the future a linguistic communication." Although people with Locked-in-Syndrome are conscious, physically but almost completely paralyzed, they are unable to communicate to the outside world either verbally or through movement.
It also makes mind reading possible?
A US research team around Brian Pasley of Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California at Berkeley came years ago to similar results as the Karlsruhe colleagues. In 2012 they reported on the portal "PloS Biology", which was able to recognize language by means of brainwaves. At the time, they also gained their insights with the help of electrodes placed in the brains of epileptic patients. The scientists had stated that even if not every word could be exactly identified, the speech recognition was well above a random expected probability. At that time, they pointed out that it was conceivable that thoughts could be heard with a comparable procedure. (Ad)