News
Lab member Emily Stephen awarded F31 NRSA from the NIDCD
Lab member Emily Stephen was just awarded a Kirschstein F31 NRSA from the National Institute of Deafness and other Communication disorders to study the EEG responses to initiation of speech and motor planning, production and covert production relative to rest. This study will initially examine these responses in subjects with no neurological disorders then expand to a cohort of subjects with spinal injuries for comparison.
NPL is a finalist for the 2011 BCI Award
Co-directors Jon Brumberg and Frank Guenther along with collaborator Philip Kennedy are one of 10 finalists out of 64 submissions for the 2011 BCI Award for their project: "An auditory output brain-computer interface for speech communication." This year's winner will be announced at the 5th International Brain-Computer Interface Conference 2011.
Lab mentioned in New Electronics
The Lab's intracortical speech BMI research was described alongside other ECoG research for controlling communication devices.
Discovery News piece focuses on Frank Guenther’s speech signal work
A recent Discovery News piece, Device turns thoughts into speech, focused on Frank Guenther's work decoding neural signals into speech sounds via an electrode in the brain of a locked-in patient.
PhysOrg.com Article “Machine translates thoughts into speech in real time”
The work of Frank Guenther's team was highlighted in a PhysOrg.com article, Machine translates thoughts into speech in real time. By implanting an electrode into the brain of a person with locked-in syndrome, Guenther, et al. have demonstrated how to wirelessly transmit neural signals to a speech synthesizer. The "thought-to-speech" process takes about 50 milliseconds - the same amount of time for a non-paralyzed, neurologically intact person to speak their thoughts. The study marks the first successful demonstration of a permanently installed, wireless implant for real-time control of an external device.
Frank Guenther featured in Popular Science
Frank Guenther was recently featured in a Popular Science online article highlighting his work in an article titled: A Wireless Brain-Machine Interface for Real-Time Speech Synthesis.
BU Speech Lab working to give locked-in patient Eric Ramsey a voice again
Read more in the Bostonia here.