Telepathy? A Brain Implant Lets Impaired Patients Do Incredible Things with their Thoughts

Mark, a patient with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), can send health notifications and text messages using his thoughts and a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) called Synchron BCI, which was developed by Australian neurosurgeon Dr. Thomas Oxley, and was implanted without major brain surgery by Dr. Raul G. Nogueira, according to the CNN Business video report "An implant in his brain lets him do incredible things with his thoughts".  I would like to thank my colleague Nuria G. for the information about this CNN Business report.

The 5:37 video with subtitles is suitable for B2 students and above, who will come across interesting words like: to send out, a pretty involved [process], [I don't take] lightly, ALS, to sign up to a clinical trial, a stentrode,

 

[brain computer] interface, [to play] pong, FDA [approval], a caregiver, paralysis, [motor] impairment, a wired mesh, [electrode] sensors, a stent, to sit in a [major] vein, deployed in a blood vessel, [minimally] invasive, a device, to fire impulses, an [electrical] signature, [electrical] patterns, [to take] a snapshot, a domain [of function], skull, garbled, [in the patient's] setting, tournament.

If you want further information, you can listen to Dr. Thomas Oxley talking about how close neurosurgery is to telepathy, that is, to a brain-computer interface for people who have lost the capacity to move or speak. This Sydney TED-Talk lasts 15:50, and can be watched with subtitles by B2 students and above.