November 24, 2015 at 21:05A neurologist implanted electrodes into his brain in order to create a voice neural interface for paralyzed people
Philip Kennedy was the first neurologist who implanted electrodes into the brain of a paralyzed person and gave him the opportunity to move the cursor on the computer screen and type texts. Kennedy studied brain capabilities, implanted electrodes in primates, but in the end, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deprived him of funding and banned human experiments.
To convince authorities to continue research, the 68-year-old neurologist and inventor paid a $ 25,000 surgeon in Central America to implant electrodes into his brain to establish a connection between the motor cortex and the computer.
Dr. Philip Kennedy
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Philip Kennedy with a group of scientists began work on the creation of a neuro-computer interface. He used electrodes to implant them in the cortex of monkeys. In 1998, he conducted a human experiment: he implanted a human-computer interface into a patient Johnny Ray, who lost mobility after a stroke. Ray learned to move the cursor and thus communicate, he lived with implants for four years. Kennedy is sometimes called the "father of the cyborgs . "
Kennedy’s last goal was to create a voice decoder, software that can translate brain signals from the mental presentation of speech into speech. The FDA stopped funding his experiments at the Neural Signals Clinic and banned human studies because of the potential danger of surgery.
To convince authorities of the need to continue research, Kennedy went to the surgeon in Central America. There he was implanted with electrodes in the motor cortex. “This study lasted 29 years and went so far that I'd rather die than not continue it,” the doctor said.
After the operation, Kennedy took data during a loud repetition of 29 sounds. He later presented these sounds, but did not utter them. So he determined the correspondence of the work of the brain both during the pronunciation and during the presentation of the pronunciation. The experiment opens up new opportunities for paralyzed people to communicate, and Kennedy hopes the FDA will resume funding.
Kennedy's brain during surgery
In the 1980s, Philip Kennedy patented an innovative type of electrode consisting of a pair of gold wires in a glass cone. This device allowed neurons to "grow" into it. Until 1996, his team experimented on animals, and in 1996 the FDA allowed the implantation of electrodes into the brain of a patient with "locked man" syndrome. The first volunteer was a mother of two children named Margery with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She was able to use the thought to turn on and off the switch. Margery's disease progressed rapidly, only 76 days later she died.
The second human patient was Johnny Ray, a 53-year-old Vietnam War veteran. He woke up after a coma, but could not move anything but the pupils. The human-computer interface helped Ray move the cursor - so you can select letters from the menu on the virtual keyboard, having at least some opportunity to say something to others. The patient lived four years after surgery.
In 2004, Kennedy implanted electrodes to Eric Ramsey. After a car accident that happened to Ramsey after his sixteenth birthday, he had "locked man" syndrome. The software created by the Kennedy team understood several sounds that the patient made, which allowed him to “say” a few simple words.
The FDA then revoked the permission to use devices in living patients. The administration asked questions about the safety of these operations, including the growth factor — compounds that caused neurons to “grow” into the electrodes. Philip Kennedy was unable to provide the necessary data Administration. The researcher could not come to terms with this FDA decision.
“Locked” people cannot communicate, sometimes they can only move their pupils and blink, and sometimes they can say something slurred, and these factors add an extra variable to the experiment. Kennedy needed a volunteer who could speak in order to examine the work of neurons in his speech.
Within a year, the doctor was looking for a person with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis who would agree to another risky operation. “I could not find anyone. I thought for a long time and in the end decided to conduct an experiment on myself, ”says Kennedy. And in June 2014, he ended up in the Belize City Hospital , in the main city of the state of the same name in Central America. For this trip, he prepared the electrodes that the neurosurgeon had implanted in his motor cortex, selected contact points, set aside enough money to live in this city for several months, if the operation went wrong.
After the first operation, Kennedy lost his speech - he could not answer anything to the surgeons who asked him questions. Doctors later explained that due to blood pressure during a twelve-hour operation, the brain was swollen, leading to temporary paralysis. “I was not scared. I knew what was going on. After all, I thought over the operation, ”the scientist comments. The second operation lasted ten hours, the electrodes were implanted in his brain.
Some researchers consider such experiments unethical or unreasonable. But there were cases when such self-sacrifice for the purposes of science paid off. In 1984, Barry Marshalldrank a culture of Helicobacter pylori bacteria to prove that it causes ulcers and stomach cancer. His assumption about this was caused by ridicule in the scientific community. Through an experiment in which Marshall developed gastric discomfort, nausea, vomiting and a peculiar bad breath, he proved his theory and received the 2005 Nobel Prize.
After returning to Georgia, Kennedy began to take data from the brain in his speech laboratory, he took data from neurons during the pronunciation of sounds and during their mental repetition. He then did the same, uttering 290 short words and phrases, including “Hello, World.” The doctor called the results of the experiments encouraging. He found that different combinations of 65 neurons worked the same way during the pronunciation of words and their mental repetition - and this is the key to developing a speech transducer.
Kennedy hoped to live with the implants for several years, but after several weeks of collecting data he had to go to a local hospital in Georgia and undergo another surgery - this time to remove the electrodes. The bill amounted to 94 thousand dollars, of which 15 thousand were paid by the insurance company.
To convince authorities to continue research, the 68-year-old neurologist and inventor paid a $ 25,000 surgeon in Central America to implant electrodes into his brain to establish a connection between the motor cortex and the computer.
Dr. Philip Kennedy
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Philip Kennedy with a group of scientists began work on the creation of a neuro-computer interface. He used electrodes to implant them in the cortex of monkeys. In 1998, he conducted a human experiment: he implanted a human-computer interface into a patient Johnny Ray, who lost mobility after a stroke. Ray learned to move the cursor and thus communicate, he lived with implants for four years. Kennedy is sometimes called the "father of the cyborgs . "
Kennedy’s last goal was to create a voice decoder, software that can translate brain signals from the mental presentation of speech into speech. The FDA stopped funding his experiments at the Neural Signals Clinic and banned human studies because of the potential danger of surgery.
To convince authorities of the need to continue research, Kennedy went to the surgeon in Central America. There he was implanted with electrodes in the motor cortex. “This study lasted 29 years and went so far that I'd rather die than not continue it,” the doctor said.
After the operation, Kennedy took data during a loud repetition of 29 sounds. He later presented these sounds, but did not utter them. So he determined the correspondence of the work of the brain both during the pronunciation and during the presentation of the pronunciation. The experiment opens up new opportunities for paralyzed people to communicate, and Kennedy hopes the FDA will resume funding.
Kennedy's brain during surgery
In the 1980s, Philip Kennedy patented an innovative type of electrode consisting of a pair of gold wires in a glass cone. This device allowed neurons to "grow" into it. Until 1996, his team experimented on animals, and in 1996 the FDA allowed the implantation of electrodes into the brain of a patient with "locked man" syndrome. The first volunteer was a mother of two children named Margery with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She was able to use the thought to turn on and off the switch. Margery's disease progressed rapidly, only 76 days later she died.
The second human patient was Johnny Ray, a 53-year-old Vietnam War veteran. He woke up after a coma, but could not move anything but the pupils. The human-computer interface helped Ray move the cursor - so you can select letters from the menu on the virtual keyboard, having at least some opportunity to say something to others. The patient lived four years after surgery.
In 2004, Kennedy implanted electrodes to Eric Ramsey. After a car accident that happened to Ramsey after his sixteenth birthday, he had "locked man" syndrome. The software created by the Kennedy team understood several sounds that the patient made, which allowed him to “say” a few simple words.
The FDA then revoked the permission to use devices in living patients. The administration asked questions about the safety of these operations, including the growth factor — compounds that caused neurons to “grow” into the electrodes. Philip Kennedy was unable to provide the necessary data Administration. The researcher could not come to terms with this FDA decision.
“Locked” people cannot communicate, sometimes they can only move their pupils and blink, and sometimes they can say something slurred, and these factors add an extra variable to the experiment. Kennedy needed a volunteer who could speak in order to examine the work of neurons in his speech.
Within a year, the doctor was looking for a person with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis who would agree to another risky operation. “I could not find anyone. I thought for a long time and in the end decided to conduct an experiment on myself, ”says Kennedy. And in June 2014, he ended up in the Belize City Hospital , in the main city of the state of the same name in Central America. For this trip, he prepared the electrodes that the neurosurgeon had implanted in his motor cortex, selected contact points, set aside enough money to live in this city for several months, if the operation went wrong.
After the first operation, Kennedy lost his speech - he could not answer anything to the surgeons who asked him questions. Doctors later explained that due to blood pressure during a twelve-hour operation, the brain was swollen, leading to temporary paralysis. “I was not scared. I knew what was going on. After all, I thought over the operation, ”the scientist comments. The second operation lasted ten hours, the electrodes were implanted in his brain.
Some researchers consider such experiments unethical or unreasonable. But there were cases when such self-sacrifice for the purposes of science paid off. In 1984, Barry Marshalldrank a culture of Helicobacter pylori bacteria to prove that it causes ulcers and stomach cancer. His assumption about this was caused by ridicule in the scientific community. Through an experiment in which Marshall developed gastric discomfort, nausea, vomiting and a peculiar bad breath, he proved his theory and received the 2005 Nobel Prize.
After returning to Georgia, Kennedy began to take data from the brain in his speech laboratory, he took data from neurons during the pronunciation of sounds and during their mental repetition. He then did the same, uttering 290 short words and phrases, including “Hello, World.” The doctor called the results of the experiments encouraging. He found that different combinations of 65 neurons worked the same way during the pronunciation of words and their mental repetition - and this is the key to developing a speech transducer.
Kennedy hoped to live with the implants for several years, but after several weeks of collecting data he had to go to a local hospital in Georgia and undergo another surgery - this time to remove the electrodes. The bill amounted to 94 thousand dollars, of which 15 thousand were paid by the insurance company.