Key players in the work of the brain-computer interface

Nearly 20 years after neuroscientist John Donoghue placed electrodes on Matthew Nagle’s motor cortex, enabling a man without moving his limbs to control objects with his thoughts, the field of brain-computer interface looks radically different – both the people doing the research and the technologies with which they use. creation.

Researchers like Leigh Hochberg and Eddie Chang and well-known startups like Synchron and Paradromics have turned what was once an arcane academic interest into a cultural phenomenon. Elon Musk, in particular, piqued public interest in the technology by asserting that Neuralink technology would eventually enable humans to upload their brains to robots.

The simultaneous development of artificial intelligence, including large language models and generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT, has been integral to technological progress over the past two decades. Experts suggest that the field is still several years away from bringing a viable product to market, whether it restores movement or sensation or facilitates communication with a computer. However, early research dramatically advanced medical understanding of the brain and attracted great interest from potential stakeholders.

Now that several teams have demonstrated the security of their devices, the field can move out of the lab and into the real world. Subsequent researchers must prove that their devices can function outside strictly controlled laboratory conditions and improve the quality of life of people with paralysis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or other disabilities. As if on cue, the Food and Drug Administration recently hosted a workshop to help researchers turn successful feasibility studies into clinically relevant devices.

As the field changes, a new group of researchers is building on the work of luminaries such as Donoghue, Hochberg, and Chang. They include six researchers whose work is shaping this rapidly evolving field. While this overview of the field doesn’t cover startups vying for money and talent, it does highlight scientists leading the effort to use neural activity to improve the lives of people with disabilities.

Sergei Staviski

Co-Director of the University of California, Davis Neuroprosthetics Laboratory

Sergey Stavisky builds a speech decoder, a device that helps people communicate after they lose the ability to speak. A recent trial of this BCI enabled a man with ALS to speak again in his own voice, which researchers recreated from old recordings. Stavisky and his colleagues implanted a device in the “smallest” part of the brain, which then collected and converted neural activity into text displayed on a computer screen that could be read aloud.

For his work on this and other research, Stavisky received the 2023 BCI Society Early Scholar Award. He is also one of the principal investigators of the BrainGate research, a national consortium of researchers collaborating on various BCI projects.

Mariska Vansteensel

Neurobiologist, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands

President of the BCI Society

Mariska Vansteensel wants to bring BCI from the laboratory to the home. In a recent New England Journal of Medicine study, her team described the use of a BCI device at home for more than seven years by an ALS patient. The study found that BCI technology may prove useful for late-stage ALS patients whose visual devices fail as eye muscle control weakens in the later stages of the neurodegenerative disease.

In a recent article, STAT explained its user-centric philosophy that neuroscientists must consider the caregivers who will ultimately operate BCI systems. “The field is currently making enormous progress. Artificial intelligence is really impressive. However, piping for independent use in the home, which families and caregivers can use to maintain the system, also needs to be set up.”

Emilia Graczyk

Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western School of Engineering, School of Medicine

In Emily Graczyk’s case, what counts most is touch. The neuroscientist is developing nervous system stimulation technologies that can enhance or restore sensations such as temperature, touch and pain in people with spinal cord injuries. Her work explores the intricacies and nuances of sensory magnitudes, such as the neural difference between a firm and crushing handshake, or restoring sensation to breast cancer patients after reconstructive surgery.

He is also working on bidirectional BCI, in which the scientist can both stimulate the nervous system and collect data about neural activity.

Sawyer Abbey

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Capacity Research Center, Mount Sinai Health System

One expert called Abbey Sawyer’s work “probably among the most important in the field.” Experts have long discussed the need for standardized clinical outcome measures for implanted BCI technology that would be important to both patients and insurers. Sawyer is leading this charge. The former physiotherapist built scientific consensus so that the field could move from the research phase to the market phase.

Inspired by her grandfather’s battle with multiple sclerosis when she was young, Sawyer believes that integrating BCI with digital devices can dramatically improve the quality of life for people with quadriplegia and quadriplegia.

Frank Willett

Research Associate, Translational Neural Prosthetics Laboratory, Stanford University

Like Sergey Stavisky, Frank Willett seeks to transform brain activity into speech. Unlike Stavisky, however, the neuroscientist has built devices that translate brain activity associated with imaginary handwriting into speech. Recently, Willett worked on a team that saw significant improvements in the number of words produced per minute using a device implanted in an area associated with speech articulation.

This research heralds a move away from BCI tools that convert thought into text, in which subjects look at a computer and mentally click letters on the screen. Improving this point-and-click method will improve the speed of communication for paralysis patients. This aligns with Willett’s ultimate goal: to give these people more freedom and help them have a voice again. For his role in this and other research, Willett received the 2021 BCI Society Early Scholar Award.

Eli Kinney-Lang

Professor, Inclusive Engineering Technologies for Neurodevelopment, University of Calgary; Chief Engineering Officer, BCI4Kids

Eli Kinney-Lang targets his brain-computer interfaces at a different population than the rest of this list: children. Current research ignores children as potential users of brain-computer interfaces, even though research shows that they can handle BCIs at the same level as adults. Kinney-Lang recognizes the challenges of adapting decades of adult research to this new population, but believes that brain-computer interface technology can dramatically improve the quality of life of millions of children with physical disabilities by helping them move and communicate.

Although the Calgary resident and his colleagues used only commercially available, non-implantable BCIs in their study, they plan to expand their modest reach. Kinney-Lang is also the co-founder of BCI Games and Possibility Neurotechnologies, two attempts to introduce gamification and make BCI more accessible.

STAT’s coverage of disability issues is supported by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Commonwealth Fund. Our financial supporters are not involved in any decisions about our journalism.