Computer helps brain trauma patients communicate

A NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM is being put to use to help victims of traumatic brain injuries communicate through the power of their thoughts.

Computer boffin, Dr Paul Gnanayutham, from the University of Portsmouth has spent years working on ways to help those with serious brain damage communicate with the outside world, helped along by a laptop full of sophisticated algorithms.

Many patients who have undergone severe brain trauma can neither speak nor move to the extent of being able to communicate their feelings to those around them. But now, using Dr Gnanayutham’s system, patients who may have long been trapped inside their own minds could soon be able to use their brainwaves, eye and muscular movements (bio-potentials) to move a cursor on a computer screen and tell the world what they want. Or more importantly, what they don’t want.

Target words like “yes”, “no”, “thank you”, or just about anything else, can be set up on the computer screen allowing the patient to use his/her mind to point to the word they want. Other applications such as a switch to turn on or off lights, televisions, and other electrical appliances as well as links to allow the patient to access the interwibble are also possible in the system. Of course, targets can be changed to just about anything a person prefers to say, watch, or do.

The system is completely non-invasive and works by attaching probes on an alice band worn around the person’s head. The band picks up brain waves (Electroencephalography or EEG), muscle movement (Electromyography or EEG) and eye movements (Electrooculorgraphy or EOG). These signals are then fed into an amplifier which cuts out external noise and listens only to the bio-potentials of the patient and the serial port. This means the computer can isolate the brain-body interface and use it to control the cursor. The system can only be used on patients who are not heavily sedated.

Patients who can move their eyes left and right can navigate a cursor left and right, raising and lowering their eyebrows can make the cursor go up and down and if patients are taught to imagine and visualise their wants, their brainwaves can also be 'read' by the computer.

Of course, tapping a person’s brainwaves and using them to control things on a computer is not new, but this is pretty much the first time it is being used on real people with serious brain injuries.

Back in March scientists announced a neckband which could translate a person’s thoughts into speech by using nerve signals, and at IDF in August, Intel CTO Justin Rattner presented headgear developed by a firm called Emotive which detected its user's brainwaves, and translated thoughts into actions in a video game.

Unfortunately for Dr Gnanayutham, however, he does not have nearly as much funding at his disposal as, say, Intel.

Dr Gnanayutham is passionate about his work, noting he has worked with a multitude of injured participants who were paraplegics, non-verbal and tube fed, and saw firsthand how giving them a voice and the ability to say 'yes' or 'no' on a computer screen changed the quality of their lives. He warns, however, " learning how to navigate using their facial muscles or brainwaves isn't easy and can take months”.

There are other challenges too, with many healthcare staff and even families of brain injured victims unhappy with the notion that patients would be given a voice, due to the fact it’s easier to care for them and keep them fed and clean if they don't have the power to express a preference, to complain or ask for things to be done differently. But Gnanayutham insists it is vital for these patients to have a voice. “They have no way of saying 'actually don't turn off the lights please because I want to stay awake for another hour', or 'no, I don't want visitors today'", he says.

It may not be much, but to people trapped in a world of darkness and silence, a few words can go a long way. µ

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