Scientists find way to allow locked-in patients to communicate

A team of scientists at the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva have found a way to connect the brains of CLIS patients to a computer that allowed them to answer simple yes / no questions.

CLIS or Completely Locked In State patients have fully functional brains, but are trapped in bodies that have no control over the outside world, despite them being fully aware of what was happening around them. A team led by neuroscientist Niels Birbaumer at the centre has found a way to connect the brains of CLIS patients to a computer that allowed them to answer simple yes/no questions.

According to professor Birbaumer, the number of people who suffered from the condition was not known. Those in a locked-in state were completely dependent on others to fulfill  even the simplest of needs and what was worse was it was a condition where the patient and another person could be in the same room, yet the complete lack of ability to communicate even by eye movements meant that they might as well be on separate planets. In fact, the cut off was so severe that until recently doctors were not even sure CLIS sufferers could communicate at all if the means were available.

The groundbreaking technology allowed the paralysed patients – who had not been able to speak for years – to answer ''yes'' or ''no'' to questions by detecting telltale patterns in their brain activity.

Three women and one man, from 24 to 76 years, were trained to use the system for over a year after they were diagnosed with completely locked-in syndrome, or CLIS.

''It's the first sign that completely locked-in syndrome may be abolished forever, because with all of these patients, we can now ask them the most critical questions in life,'' said Birbaumer, The Guardian reported.