BACKGROUND Brain-computer interfaces can enable communication for people with paralysis by transforming cortical activity associated with attempted speech into text on a computer screen. Communication with brain-computer interfaces has been restricted by extensive training requirements and limited accuracy. METHODS A 45-year-old man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with tetraparesis and severe dysarthria underwent surgical implantation of four microelectrode arrays into his left ventral precentral gyrus 5 years after the onset of the illness; these arrays recorded neural activity from 256 intracortical electrodes. We report the results of decoding his cortical neural activity as he attempted to speak in both prompted and unstructured conversational contexts. Decoded words were displayed on a screen and then vocalized with the use of text-to-speech software designed to sound like his pre-ALS voice. RESULTS On the first day of use (25 days after surgery), the neuroprosthesis achieved 99.6% accuracy with a 50-word vocabulary. Calibration of the neuroprosthesis required 30 minutes of cortical recordings while the participant attempted to speak, followed by subsequent processing. On the second day, after 1.4 additional hours of system training, the neuroprosthesis achieved 90.2% accuracy using a 125,000-word vocabulary. With further training data, the neuroprosthesis sustained 97.5% accuracy over a period of 8.4 months after surgical implantation, and the participant used it to communicate in self-paced conversations at a rate of approximately 32 words per minute for more than 248 cumulative hours. CONCLUSIONS In a person with ALS and severe dysarthria, an intracortical speech neuroprosthesis reached a level of performance suitable to restore conversational communication after brief training. (Funded by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and others; BrainGate2 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00912041.).

中文翻译：

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准确且快速校准的言语神经假体。


背景技术脑机接口可以通过将与尝试的语音相关的皮层活动转换成计算机屏幕上的文本来使瘫痪者能够进行通信。脑机接口的通信受到广泛的培训要求和有限的准确性的限制。方法 一名 45 岁男性患有肌萎缩侧索硬化症 (ALS)，伴有四肢轻瘫和严重构音障碍，在发病 5 年后，在其左腹中央前回进行了四个微电极阵列的手术植入；这些阵列记录了 256 个皮质内电极的神经活动。当他尝试在提示和非结构化对话环境中说话时，我们报告了解码他的皮质神经活动的结果。解码后的单词会显示在屏幕上，然后使用文本转语音软件发出声音，该软件旨在听起来像他在 ALS 之前的声音。结果 在使用第一天（手术后 25 天），神经假体在 50 个单词的词汇中达到了 99.6% 的准确率。神经假体的校准需要在参与者尝试说话时进行 30 分钟的皮质录音，然后进行后续处理。第二天，经过 1.4 个小时的额外系统训练，神经假体使用 125,000 个单词的词汇实现了 90.2% 的准确率。根据进一步的训练数据，神经假体在手术植入后的 8.4 个月内保持了 97.5% 的准确率，参与者使用它以每分钟约 32 个单词的速度进行自定进度的对话，累计时间超过 248 个小时。 结论 对于患有 ALS 和严重构音障碍的患者，皮质内言语神经假体在经过短暂训练后达到了适合恢复对话交流的性能水平。 （由负责卫生事务的助理国防部长办公室和其他机构资助；BrainGate2 ClinicalTrials.gov 编号，NCT00912041。）。