How words are formed in brain may help people with severe disabilities to "speak

In a major breakthrough, an international team of scientists, led by Washington University, claim to have discovered a method to watch how words are formed in the human brain. Scientists say that this could one day allow people with severe disabilities to "speak".

Fascinating enough, the team found a way to look into the deepest recesses of the brain to watch words forming. Using electrodes, they found the area of the brain that is involved in creating the 40 or so sounds that form the English language.

In the experiment, the team studied four people who suffered from severe epilepsy, by implanting 64 electrodes into each one’s head. They monitored the areas of the brain where speech is formed.

The subjects were asked to make four repeated sounds "oo", "ah", "eh", and "ee". The team monitored the Wenicke's and Broca's areas of the brain for signals related to speech formation.
The scientists were then able to pick out the corresponding electrical signals, and while these four signals will not be enough to form sentences, further research could lead to this becoming possible. The scientists then discovered that each of these sounds has its own signal which they believe could eventually allow a computer programme to read what people want to say by the power of their thoughts.

Watch the video to get an idea how the scientists looked into word areas of brain:



Optimistic by the progress made so far, the team is hopeful that they will be able to fully read someone's mind and use miniature computers or smart chips to give words to people with severe disabilities to "speak. --------

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