Imagine the following. You are every bit as smart and lucid as you have ever been. You see and hear the people that talk to you. You think and dream as anyone does.But you can't move.
You can't react physically to any thought or stimulus. You are kept prisoner in a motionless body.
This is the reality for some people who face paralysis from a variety of causes, for example from advanced stages of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - ALS. But a team of scientists, with members from the USA and Germany, reported in the March 25, 1999 issue of Nature that they have created a device that allows a limited form a of communication for people with "locked-in syndrom".
With this method, the patients use biofeedback techniques to learn how to create particular brain wave patterns that can be detected with electroencephalography (EEG) and used to control a machine that allows the patient to select letters. This allows the patient to spell out words.
Right now, the technique is rather slow. The first message, "Thank you," typed out by an ALS patient took several hours to construct. With proficiency, patients can communicate at a rate of about two letters per minute. Even with this slow rate, it is a tremendous advance for patients that would otherwise be unable to communicate. There are many other scientific developments !
