A brain implant changes the life of a patient with “Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis”

In an event that is the first of its kind ever, a completely paralyzed ALS patient used a brain implant to communicate with his surroundings, raising hopes for those with this comprehensive disability, which is accompanied by full awareness.

A recent study published in the journal Nature Communications said that implanting a brain-computer interface helped a man in the final stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) paralysis, which made him completely unable to communicate with his care team and his family.

The now-36-year-old German's statements included that he wanted "sweet pea soup", that he liked his "nice son", that he ordered drinks he liked, and that he wanted to "listen" to a certain music album "Loud".

This amazing success comes after three months of failed attempts after the implantation of the chip, as indicated by the study issued by the University of "Tübingen" in Germany.

It was only when researchers started using neurofeedback — a technique that has people trying to alter their brain signals and learning in real time if they succeeded — that they made a breakthrough.

By asking the patient to modulate an audible pitch - which he was able to do on his first day, and mastered in less than two weeks - the man was able to give "yes" or "no" answers.

Then, by having the man respond "yes" or "no" to the messages, the researchers were able to help him clarify the sentences, as his first request was to ask his care team to change the position of his body, Futurism says.

After some time using this methodology, the man was eventually able to explain to the German researchers that he had been able to manipulate tone by focusing on how he had moved his eyes previously, although by the time of the research, he had not been able to.

Although scientists are still in the stage of studying the experiment, and drawing its methodological results, before generalizing it, it is the first time that a person has been “completely locked inside his body” as patients of this type are described, communicating with his care team with acceptable clarity, and delivering emotional messages. To his family, raising hopes of finding radical solutions for those affected by this paralysis.

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