Brain implant helps paralysed Utrecht woman to communicate again

DutchNews, November 14, 2016

A brain implant is helping a Dutch woman who has become completely paralysed due to muscle disease ALS to communicate again, thanks to researchers in Utrecht. 

Hanneke de Bruijne was diagnosed with ALS in 2008 but this weekend was able to give an interview to New Scientist magazine, thanks to the implant which allows her to control a tablet computer. 

The implant means she can spell out words on the tablet. It is a slow process, taking up to a minute for a single word but ”I have more confidence, I am more independent and I can communicate again,’ De Bruijne, said in the interview. 

‘This is a major breakthrough in achieving autonomous communication among severely paralysed patients whose paralysis is caused by either ALS, a cerebral hemorrhage or trauma,’ said professor Nick Ramsey, professor of cognitive neuroscience at Utrecht’s teaching hospital UMC.

‘In effect, this patient has had a kind of remote control placed in her head, which enables her to operate a speech computer without the use of her muscles.’ 

The team hope that if the implant proves to work well in three people, they can launch a larger, international trial. 

Some 500 people are diagnosed with ALS in the Netherlands every year. 

Watch the CNN report