California · U.S. · MIT Technology Review
This man with ALS is “the first power user” of a brain implant that lets him speak
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◌ Single Source
Casey Harrell has had a set of electrodes embedded in his brain for almost three years.
Key facts
- In July 2023, during a five-hour operation, doctors implanted four arrays of 64 electrodes each into his brain
- Within the first 22.6 months after the device was implanted, Harrell had used it for more than 3,800 hours at home without any researchers present, the team reported today in the journal Nature
- On that day in August, Harrell used the device to speak with a 50-word vocabulary, and 99.6% of the words were as he’d intended
- There are 39 phonemes that make up all the sounds in the [American] English language,” says Nicholas Card, a neuroengineer at UC Davis and member of the team
Summary
Since then, Harrell has clocked thousands of hours of use. “Living with a disease like ALS, you are supposed to have diminished dreams. Within the first 22.6 months after the device was implanted, Harrell had used it for more than 3,800 hours at home without any researchers present, the team reported today in the journal Nature Medicine. Three years ago, Harrell entrusted David Brandman, an associate professor of neurological surgery at the University of California, Davis, and his colleagues with his brain.