Pei Xiaomei, Hill Jeremy, Schalk Gerwin
Brain–Computer Interface R&D Program, Wadsworth Center, Albany, New York, USA.
IEEE Pulse. 2012 Jan;3(1):43-6. doi: 10.1109/MPUL.2011.2175637.
From the 1980s movie Firefox to the more recent Avatar, popular science fiction has speculated about the possibility of a persons thoughts being read directly from his or her brain. Such braincomputer interfaces (BCIs) might allow people who are paralyzed to communicate with and control their environment, and there might also be applications in military situations wherever silent user-to-user communication is desirable. Previous studies have shown that BCI systems can use brain signals related to movements and movement imagery or attention-based character selection. Although these systems have successfully demonstrated the possibility to control devices using brain function, directly inferring which word a person intends to communicate has been elusive. A BCI using imagined speech might provide such a practical, intuitive device. Toward this goal, our studies to date addressed two scientific questions: (1) Can brain signals accurately characterize different aspects of speech? (2) Is it possible to predict spoken or imagined words or their components using brain signals?
从20世纪80年代的电影《火狐》到最近的《阿凡达》，流行科幻作品一直在推测直接从人的大脑读取其思想的可能性。这种脑机接口（BCI）或许能让瘫痪者与外界交流并控制周围环境，在需要无声的用户间通信的军事场景中可能也会有应用。此前的研究表明，脑机接口系统可以利用与动作、动作想象或基于注意力的字符选择相关的脑信号。尽管这些系统已成功证明利用脑功能控制设备的可能性，但直接推断一个人想要传达的是哪个词却一直难以实现。使用想象语音的脑机接口可能会提供这样一种实用且直观的设备。为了实现这一目标，我们目前的研究解决了两个科学问题：（1）脑信号能否准确地表征语音的不同方面？（2）是否有可能利用脑信号预测说出的或想象中的单词或其组成部分？
