(Nanowerk News)BrainComis a FET Proactive project, funded by the European Commission with 8.35M€ for the next 5 years, holding its Kick-off meeting on January 12-13 at ICN2 and the UAB. This project, coordinated by ICREA Research Prof. Jose A. Garrido from ICN2, will permit significant advances in understanding of cortical speech networks and the development of speech rehabilitation solutions using innovative brain-computer interfaces. More than 5 million people worldwide suffer annually from aphasia, an extremely invalidating condition in which patients lose the ability to comprehend and formulate language after brain damage or in the courseof neurodegenerative disorders. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), enabled by forefront technologies and materials, are a promising approach to treat patients with aphasia. The principle of BCIs is to collectneural activity at its source and decode it by means of electrodes implanted directly in the brain. However, neuro rehabilitation of higher cognitive functions such as language raises serious issues. The current challenge is to design neural implants that cover sufficiently large areas of the brain to allow for reliable decoding of detailed neuronal activity distributed in various brain regions that are key for language processing.

Recent developments show that it is possible to record cortical signals from a small region of the motor cortex and decode them to allow tetraplegic people to activate a robotic arm to perform everyday life actions. Brain-computer interfaces have also been successfully used to help tetraplegic patients unable to speak to communicate their thoughts by selecting letters on a computer screen using non-invasive electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings. The performance of such technologies can be dramatically increased using more detailed cortical neural information.

These technologies will help to advance the basic understanding of cortical speech networks and to develop rehabilitation solutions to restore speech usinginnovative brain-computer paradigms. The technology innovations developed in the project will also find applications in the study of other high cognitive functions of the brain such as learning and memory, aswell as other clinical applications such as epilepsy monitoring.
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Source: http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=45580.php

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