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Direct Brain Control and Communication in Paralysis

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Abstract

Despite considerable growth in the field of brain-computer or brain-machine interface (BCI/BMI) research reflected in several hundred publications each year, little progress was made to enable patients in complete locked-in state (CLIS) to reliably communicate using their brain activity. Independent of the invasiveness of the BCI systems tested, no sustained direct brain control and communication was demonstrated in a patient in CLIS so far. This suggested a more fundamental theoretical problem of learning and attention in brain communication with BCI/BMI, formulated in the extinction-of-thought hypothesis. While operant conditioning and goal-directed thinking seems impaired in complete paralysis, classical conditioning of brain responses might represent the only alternative. First experimental studies in CLIS using semantic conditioning support this assumption. Evidence that quality-of-life in locked-in-state is not as limited and poor as generally believed draise doubts that “patient wills” or “advanced directives”signed long-before the locked-in-state are useful. On the contrary, they might be used as an excuse to shorten anticipated long periods of care for these patients avoiding associated financial and social burdens. Current state and availability of BCI/BMI systems urge a broader societal discourse on the pressing ethical challenges associated with the advancements in neurotechnology and BCI/BMI research.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, Förderzeichen 01GQ0831, 16SV5840), the National Secretary of Higher Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation (SENESCYT) of Ecuador, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the European Union (FP7-ICT-2011-288551).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Gartenstrasse 29, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Niels Birbaumer, Guillermo Gallegos-Ayala & Surjo R. Soekadar

  2. Ospedale San Camillo, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS), Venezia, Lido, Italy

    Niels Birbaumer & Stefano Silvoni

  3. Graduate School of Neural Information Processing, International Max Planck Research School, Tübingen, Germany

    Guillermo Gallegos-Ayala

  4. Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL), Guayaquil, Ecuador

    Guillermo Gallegos-Ayala

  5. Institut für Radiologie, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Munich, Germany

    Moritz Wildgruber

  6. Applied Neurotechnology Lab, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Calwerstr. 14, D-72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Surjo R. Soekadar

Authors
  1. Niels Birbaumer
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  2. Guillermo Gallegos-Ayala
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  3. Moritz Wildgruber
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  4. Stefano Silvoni
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  5. Surjo R. Soekadar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Surjo R. Soekadar.

Additional information

This is one of several papers published together in Brain Topography on the “Special Topic: Clinical and Ethical Implications of Neuromodulation Techniques”.

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Birbaumer, N., Gallegos-Ayala, G., Wildgruber, M. et al. Direct Brain Control and Communication in Paralysis. Brain Topogr 27, 4–11 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-013-0282-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-013-0282-1

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