Assistive BCI

Severe neurological conditions can cut people off from the world around them, taking away speech, movement, or both, while thought and intention remain, in the form of the underlying brain activity, which can no longer be translated into action because of injury or neurological disease. For these patients the barrier is not the will to communicate, but a working path from the brain to the outside. A brain-computer interface can provide that path, bridging the impaired parts of the nervous system by reading neural activity directly and turning it into communication and control.

Brain Interchange was built to both read from and write to the nervous system. In stroke rehabilitation, it responds to the brain with targeted stimulation. In assistive applications, it reads neural activity and translates it into signals a computer can use, so intention becomes action, keeping the same two-way link between the nervous system and the outside world. It is the same fully implantable platform, applied to a different goal.

In the ongoing investigational stroke rehabilitation study at the University of Washington, a participant was able to control a computer through the decoding of neural activity recorded by Brain Interchange. The application allowed the participant to play a video game now termed Brain-Pong, based on the 1980s arcade game Pong. It is an early proof-of-concept with one individual implanted with the investigational device, but it highlights the core of an assistive BCI at work, turning brain activity into direct control. CorTec provides the Brain Interchange system. These BCI sessions were conducted after the main phase of the stroke rehabilitation study had concluded, to prevent cross-application effects.

Through the INTENSE project, short for Innovative Neurotechnology for Society, CorTec collaborates with University Medical Center Utrecht and partners at different European institutions to explore how an implantable BCI can restore communication for people who have lost the ability to speak or move. The study is currently recruiting participants. The collaboration brings together CorTec's implantable technology and the clinical and scientific expertise of its partners.

Brain Interchange has received two FDA Breakthrough Device Designations, one for stroke motor rehabilitation and one for its communication application.

Assistive BCI is a second, emerging direction for Brain Interchange, and the next logical step in the evolution of our platform. Stroke rehabilitation remains our lead indication, and the assistive applications build on the same technology and the same clinical foundation. As the platform advances, it opens toward a broader range of ways to restore communication and control of digital technologies.

Working on communication or assistive neurotechnology? Talk to us about building on the Brain Interchange platform.

The Brain Interchange System is an investigational device and is not approved for commercial use. CAUTION: Investigational device. Limited by Federal (or United States) law to investigational use.