BMI technology makes breakthrough in simultaneously decoding language and movement

NeuroXess, a leading brain-machine interface company based in Shanghai, was the world's first to simultaneously decode language and movement in real-time, marking the city's latest breakthrough in this technology.

Addressing critical clinical needs for restoring motor and language functions impaired by brain damage, the firm said on Thursday that it independently developed a 256-channel high-throughput, flexible brain-machine interface. Clinical trials for high-precision, real-time movement decoding and language decoding were conducted at Huashan Hospital Affiliated with Fudan University in Shanghai recently.

The research team said that two weeks after the surgeries, patients were able to control intelligent devices and realize communication with their thoughts.

In August, NeuroXess in collaboration with the neurosurgery team at Huashan Hospital successfully conducted the first clinical trial on thought-controlled movement. The trial involved a 21-year-old epileptic patient with a lesion in the brain's motor area. The participant underwent a surgery to implant a 256-channel high-throughput, flexible brain-machine interface to monitor the lesion and safeguard critical brain functions related to movement.

The trial participant could play simple digital games on a smart phone with thoughts two days after the surgery. After two weeks of training, the trial participant could use their thoughts to control common smartphone apps as well as smart home appliances and smart wheelchair, significantly enhancing basic mobility for individuals with movement disorders.

In December, the firm joined hands with the neurosurgery team at Huashan Hospital again and conducted the country's first clinical trial on real-time synthesis of spoken Chinese using a high-throughput, flexible brain-machine interface. The team performed a flexible brain-machine interface implantation surgery on a patient suffering from epilepsy and a tumor occupying the brain's language function area.

When the patient recovered from the surgery, they were able to decode 71 percent of 142 commonly used Chinese phonemes within five days, with a decoding latency of less than 100 milliseconds for individual words. This marked the highest level of real-time Chinese language decoding in China so far, holding promise for aiding individuals with language impairments in rebuilding their language capabilities.