European neuroscientists have developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) that can read the blood oxygen levels of the brain, and thus facilitate communication by reading the thoughts of patients unable to talk and suffering total paralysis.

The trial was conducted in four patients with locked-in syndrome, in which someone is completely paralyzed save for some eye movement. There are cases where patients eventually lose even their capacity to blink, effectively cutting off all worldly contact.

The four patients were made completely immobile by Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

"I Love To Live"

Neuroscientist Niels Birbaumer and his colleagues reported that the BCI is non-invasive and works using a cap and spectroscope. It fits on the head like a swimming cap and measures electrical wave changes in the brain as well as blood flow via electroencephalography (EEG) and near-infrared light.

The team managed to communicate with the patients. To the statement “I love to live” and “Are you happy,” three of them replied yes. The fourth patient, a woman age 23, was not asked open-ended questions out of her parents’ fear that she was emotionally fragile.

The “yes” and “no” responses were received during 10 days of testing, and they were proven consistent around 70 percent of the time, the team said.

“We were initially surprised at the positive responses when we questioned the four completely locked-in patients about their quality of life,” said Birbaumer in a statement, with the team reporting in the journal PLoS Biology that the families of the patients “experienced substantial relief” and continue using the system.

They observed, according to Birbaumer, that the patients deemed their quality of life acceptable as long as they got satisfactory care at home.

One patient, a 76-year-old woman, lost speech and walking ability in 2011 and eventually even the capacity to use assistive devices and eye movement by 2014. Another patient, a 61-year-old man, was diagnosed with ALS in 2011 and had not communicated since 2014.

A 24-year-old woman had a rarely aggressive and early-onset form of the same condition.

The team is planning to build from these results to develop the technology further, aiming for it to be available to those paralyzed by ALS, stroke, or spinal cord injury.

ALS In Focus

ALS is documented to strike in 12,187 individuals in the United States, with the health registry reflecting that four out of 100,000 has the condition. It still has no cure and with a fast progression, where patients always die despite surviving for years on ventilators and feeding tubes.

Evidence has it that the brain is the last to go in cases of ALS.

New research this week revealed that some eye muscles maintain the unique ability to stay unaffected by ALS, which mainly affects muscles and paralyzes the body such that breathing becomes so difficult. Researchers at Umeå University in Sweden investigated mechanisms that showed how ALS patients were able to maintain their eye functions.

ALS patient Steve Gleason, a former NFL player, is immobilized by the condition, unable to speak or move and needs to be assisted in eating and breathing. However, his eye muscles remain functional and allow for communication through a speech-generating device in a tablet attached to his wheelchair.