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The speech neuroprosthesis
Alexander B Silva1,2, Kaylo T Littlejohn1,2,3, Jessie R Liu1,2
1Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Nature Reviews. Neuroscience
|May 14, 2024
Summary
Scientists are decoding brain activity to restore speech in paralyzed individuals. Advanced neural interfaces and algorithms enable speech neuroprostheses that surpass current assistive technologies.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Biomedical Engineering
- Computational Linguistics
Background:
- Loss of speech due to paralysis severely impacts communication and self-expression.
- Recent advances reveal how cortical activity underlies speech production.
- Directly decoding speech from brain signals offers a path to restore communication.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review progress in decoding speech from neural activity.
- To highlight the development of speech neuroprostheses.
- To discuss future directions for clinical viability.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing high-spatiotemporal-resolution neural interfaces.
- Applying state-of-the-art speech computational algorithms.
- Decoding intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) and electrocorticography (ECoG) data.
Main Results:
- Successful speech decoding in individuals with epilepsy monitoring implants and in early clinical trials for paralysis.
- Decoding neural activity into text, audible speech, and facial movements.
- Speech neuroprostheses demonstrate performance exceeding current assistive communication rates.
Conclusions:
- Speech neuroprostheses show significant promise for restoring communication in paralyzed individuals.
- Standardized evaluation metrics are proposed to guide future research.
- Further exploration of speech and language feature spaces is crucial for clinical viability.
