News Neuroscience

Brain implants turn imagined handwriting into text on a screen

A person paralyzed from the neck down communicated using the brain-to-text technology

an illustration depicting a person thinking about writing the word "hello" and "hello" appears on a computer screen

A man with electrodes implanted in his brain imagined writing with a pen on paper and saw that text appear on screen, a new study reports.

F. Willett et al/Nature 2021, Erika Woodrum

By Anushree Dave

Electrodes in a paralyzed man’s brain turned his imagined handwriting into words typed on a screen. The translation from brain to text may ultimately point to ways to help people with disabilities like paralysis communicate using just their thoughts.