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A brain-computer interface may give unresponsive ICU patients a voice

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A brain-computer interface may give unresponsive ICU patients a voice

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Unresponsive ICU patients in a new Columbia study were able to raise and lower the frequency of a beeping tone with their minds, via noninvasive EEG electrodes that recorded and translated their brain waves.

The study, published in the journal Brain, opens the door to noninvasive brain-computer interfaces that could allow seemingly comatose patients with hidden consciousness to communicate with doctors and family members.

"Research in the past decade by us and others has shown that many patients with acute brain injury who appear to be in a coma actually have some level of preserved consciousness, even though they are unable to speak or move their hands or eyes to communicate," says Jan Claassen, M.D., a professor of neurology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, who led the study.

"Our brain-computer interface is only a first step, but it shows that, in principle, we could hopefully in the future give some of these patients a voice."

Claassen, who is also the medical director of the neurocritical care unit at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, has been one of the pioneers in recognizing hidden consciousness in brain-injured patients who are in a coma-like state and unable to respond to questions or directives from physicians or their families.

In 2019, his team used standard EEG technology and AI to analyze the brain waves of unresponsive, brain-injured patients and detected signs of hidden consciousness in 15% of the patients.


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