The 44-year-old male patient from Huining, Gansu Province, accidentally fell from a height half a month ago, resulting in dislocation of the fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae and injury to the high spinal cord. After timely surgical treatment in the local hospital, the cervical vertebra has been successfully recovered, but the function of limbs has not yet recovered. In addition, tracheotomy with bulbar palsy leads to dysphagia and speech disorder, and we can only express our demands to the doctor by blinking ("yes" or "no"). How to make such patients better express their voices? This problem has been puzzling ICU medical staff at home and abroad.
Recently, Wang Xiaochuan, director of the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Wang Gang, deputy director and Professor Xu Guanghua of the School of Mechanical Engineering fully demonstrated the application of BCI technology in critically ill patients, and made a personalized implementation plan for patients. Subsequently, on the basis of full communication between the competent physician and patients and their families, Director Wang further communicated with patients and their families on the safety and feasibility of the technology.
After obtaining the consent of patients and their families, Professor Xu and his team came to the department with a full set of equipment on the morning of August 6, using technology to help patients speak freely.
After the doctor and Dr. Hou confirmed that the patient's ECG monitoring and airway intubation were safe, the nurse in charge and Professor Xu's team put an EEG cap on the patient. After Professor Xu repeatedly checked to ensure the normal connection of the equipment, the patient's first BCI test officially began, and the screen began to count down: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
After the program briefly guides the teaching, the patient can "control" the equipment by staring at the computer screen. The patient in the hospital bed quietly looked at the beating characters on the computer screen, and soon the word "hello" popped up on the screen. The EEG cap collects the patient's EEG signals, and through computer processing and analysis, the patient finally greets the BCI system.
Extended data
Principles of BCI
According to reports, BCI is a technology that uses various electrodes to collect bioelectrical signals generated by brain activities, and processes and analyzes the signals through computers to decode signals such as movements and vision, thus realizing human-computer interaction. According to different signal acquisition methods, BCI system can be divided into invasive BCI and noninvasive BCI.
The former collects EEG signals directly from the surface of cerebral cortex, which requires surgical implantation of chips; The latter collects brain wave signals from scalp and records electroencephalogram (EEG) through wearable devices such as EEG caps. Electroencephalogram (EEG) reflects the electrical activity of brain tissue and the functional state of brain. Through the analysis of EEG, people's intentions can be detected and recognized, and the direct control of external devices can be realized accordingly.
A new vision of the northern night-let the sound "see"! The aphasic person expresses his voice through the brain machine, and he can express himself.