"Thought to Speech" Step 3: Science, Engineering and Clinical Planning of an Intracortical Communication System for Adults with Cerebral Palsy (BrainGate-CP)

Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award will support participant travel costs to the international workshop, "Thought to Speech" Step 3: Science, Engineering and Clinical Planning of an Intracortical Communication System for Adults with Cerebral Palsy (BrainGate-CP)", being held at the Hilton Chicago O`Hare Airport on November 28, 2018. The summit will bring together people with expertise not only in brain-computer interfaces (BCI's) and cerebral palsy, but also in neuroscience, language development and related fields to promote a comprehensive understanding of the challenges involved in creating BCI's for this purpose. A "thought-to-speech" BCI would provide an opportunity for people born without the ability to speak as well as relieve the burden of acquired speech impairments from those who acquire such a condition later in life. The intelligence of people with motor and communication impairments is routinely underestimated. A thought-to-speech or rapid-text BCI would circumvent this fallacious assumption. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.