A 34-year-old man battling ALS has communicated through a brain implant at a German Hospital, says a report. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive nervous system disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. This leads to a loss of muscle control. In simple language, it is called paralysis.
According to this report, only a few years ago it was found that the cells of this young man’s brain are degenerating rapidly. The man whose eyeballs were not even moving, with the help of this technology, could even utter some words in German. His words were that he wanted potatoes with curry and then soup for dinner.
Dr Ujjwal Choudhary, who was a biomedical engineer at the Tubingen University in Geneva, has been working on brain implants for a long time. According to him, this person tried to communicate with the help of his eyeballs instead of eyelids.
Niels Birbaumer, the lead of the research team and former neuroscientist of the university, said, “This is the first time in the world that a completely paralyzed person could communicate with the outside world this way. The results obtained with the help of brain implants can potentially be very effective, they can also be helpful in the case of the unconscious or unconscious.”
Two small electrodes are placed in the brain:
Before being completely paralyzed in 2017, he talked to his family through eye movement. When the family members went to Dr Chowdhary and Dr Birbaumer to find another way, neurosurgeon and study author Dr James Lumberg implanted two small electrodes in the brain that controlled his movement.
The research was banned 5 years ago:
Dr Chaudhary and Dr Birbaumer researched this technology 5 years ago. Later, the investigation revealed that the research was biased. After the controversy, the German Research Foundation banned further research on the subject. Dr Chaudhary was banned for 3 years and Dr Birbaumer for 5 years.
