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Reached Via a Mind-Reading Device, Deeply Paralyzed Patients Say They Want to Live (technologyreview.com)

Posted by msmash on from the groundbreaking dept.

Neuroscientists have designed a brain-reading device to hold simple conversations with "locked-in" patients that promises to transform the lives of people who are too disabled to communicate. Details of four patients who were able to communicate using what is being touted as a groundbreaking system were made public this week. From a report on MIT Technology Review: Now researchers in Europe say they've found out the answer after using a brain-computer interface to communicate with four people completely locked in after losing all voluntary movement due to Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In response to the statement "I love to live" three of the four replied yes. They also said yes when asked "Are you happy?" Designed by neuroscientist Niels Birbaumer, now at the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva, the brain-computer interface fits on a person's head like a swimming cap and measures changes in electrical waves emanating from the brain and also blood flow using a technique known as near-infrared spectroscopy. To verify the four could communicate, Birbaumer's team asked patients, over the course of about 10 days of testing, to respond yes or no to statements such as "You were born in Berlin" or "Paris is the capital of Germany" by modulating their thoughts and altering the blood-flow pattern. The answers relayed through the system were consistent about 70 percent of the time, substantially better than chance.

6 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Seventy Percent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sorry to be the skeptic, but 70% of the time isn't really that high. it means that the machine can read your thought 40% of the time and then the remaining 60% is a coin flip.

    And this assumes no biases introduced into the process. We've seen in the past that ways of reading a paralyzed persons thought have turned out to either be scams, or well-intentioned people unconsciously affecting the results of the readings.

    Now, I really hope we find ways to accomplish what this researchers are claiming, but I am skeptical.

    1. Re:Seventy Percent by omnichad · · Score: 5, Insightful

      it means that the machine can read your thought 40% of the time and then the remaining 60% is a coin flip.

      That's not how probabilities work. It's true that it's better by 20% than a coin flip, but the rest of your conclusions are completely wrong.

  2. Interesting, but I'm not sure I trust it by scubamage · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is neat research, but I want it much more strongly vetted. It reminds way too much of the facilitated communication mess we encountered several years ago.

    1. Re:Interesting, but I'm not sure I trust it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As they hooked up the device and turned it on, I felt an immense sense of relief. Finally, after all these years of staring at the bleak beige ceiling tiles.

      "Do you want to live?" the doctor asked.

      In my mind, I shouted, "No!" No! A million times no! Release me from this dead body so that I can move on to the summerland! No! Let me die!

      The doctor turned to my wife and told her, "He says that he wants to live! We should be able to keep him alive for another good 30 years."

      I can't move my mouth, and I must scream.

    2. Re:Interesting, but I'm not sure I trust it by MBGMorden · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You say that as someone who isn't enduring it.

      To many people anything less than what they have now is completely unbearable. To the rich they think if they were poor they'd kill themselves - despite many poor people living happy lives. To the young many think that they'd rather die than grow old - even though "old" is a moving target that keeps getting a little farther out as you age.

      The will to live is strong - those without it don't pass on their genes as readily. Don't presume to know whether they'd want to live unless you're in their situation.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
  3. I don't want to die. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This bullshit about how we all have to grow old and die has got to fucking stop. Humanity need to quit dragging its feet and fucking cure aging. Our species has waited long enough. It is time for the dying to stop.

    For god's sake, get on it!