🧠 This implant translates your thoughts into speech

A major breakthrough in neuroprosthetics allows inner thoughts to be translated into text without any speech effort.

Researchers at Stanford University have developed an implant for patients with severe paralysis. Their work, published in Cell, marks a significant step toward a new form of communication.

How the brain-computer interface works

The implant captures electrical activity in the brain's motor cortex region. This area activates both for attempted speech and for simply imagining speaking ("inner thought"). The neural signals produced show similarities but also a major difference.

Attempted speech requires conscious muscular effort, however minimal. For people with severe motor disabilities, this effort is very tiring. It requires intense concentration to try to activate often paralyzed muscles. Inner speech, or imagined speech, generates much weaker signals. It requires no muscular tension or speech effort. This lack of physical constraint makes it much less exhausting for the user.

The system was therefore specifically trained on these inner thought signals. An artificial intelligence decodes the signals and identifies the phonemes imagined by the user. A language algorithm then reconstructs the full words and sentences. The available vocabulary exceeds 125,000 words.

This approach allows for much more comfortable and sustainable communication. The accuracy of reconstruction reaches 74% in tests. This performance is equivalent to existing systems based on attempted speech, and the processing speed allows for near-conversational exchange.

Thoughts protected by... a password

The system requires conscious activation by the user. A "password" phrase, determined in advance, must be thought to trigger transcription. This password sequence remains personal and confidential.

Recognition of this "key phrase" reaches 98% reliability. This security prevents accidental reading of private thoughts: the device remains inactive without this neural authorization.

This approach addresses the ethical concerns raised by these technologies. It guarantees total control to the user, thus preserving autonomy and respect for privacy.