# High performance communication by people with paralysis using an intracortical brain-computer interface

Article · Pandarinath C, Nuyujukian P, Blabe CH, Sorice BL, Saab J, Willett FR, Hochberg LR, Shenoy KV, Henderson JM

- Archive id: doi:10.7554/elife.18554
- Published: 2017-02-21
- Venue: eLife
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.18554
- PMID: 28220753
- PMCID: PMC5319839
- Citations: 388
- Source URL: https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.18554
- PDF: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5319839/pdf
- Provenance: europepmc

## Abstract

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have the potential to restore communication for people with tetraplegia and anarthria by translating neural activity into control signals for assistive communication devices. While previous pre-clinical and clinical studies have demonstrated promising proofs-of-concept (Serruya et al., 2002; Simeral et al., 2011; Bacher et al., 2015; Nuyujukian et al., 2015; Aflalo et al., 2015; Gilja et al., 2015; Jarosiewicz et al., 2015; Wolpaw et al., 1998; Hwang et al., 2012; Spüler et al., 2012; Leuthardt et al., 2004; Taylor et al., 2002; Schalk et al., 2008; Moran, 2010; Brunner et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2013; Townsend and Platsko, 2016; Vansteensel et al., 2016; Nuyujukian et al., 2016; Carmena et al., 2003; Musallam et al., 2004; Santhanam et al., 2006; Hochberg et al., 2006; Ganguly et al., 2011; O'Doherty et al., 2011; Gilja et al., 2012), the performance of human clinical BCI systems is not yet high enough to support widespread adoption by people with physical limitations of speech. Here we report a high-performance intracortical BCI (iBCI) for communication, which was tested by three clinical trial participants with paralysis. The system leveraged advances in decoder design developed in prior pre-clinical and clinical studies (Gilja et al., 2015; Kao et al., 2016; Gilja et al., 2012). For all three participants, performance exceeded previous iBCIs (Bacher et al., 2015; Jarosiewicz et al., 2015) as measured by typing rate (by a factor of 1.4-4.2) and information throughput (by a factor of 2.2-4.0). This high level of performance demonstrates the potential utility of iBCIs as powerful assistive communication devices for people with limited motor function.Clinical Trial No: NCT00912041.

_Abstract reproduced under CC0-1.0 (article license as recorded by Europe PMC; abstract reproduced unmodified apart from markup removal)._

Topics: [Brain-Computer Interfaces](https://space-kitty.com/topics/brain-computer-interfaces)

Cited in dossiers:
- [Brain-Computer Interfaces: State of the Field (October 2026)](https://space-kitty.com/dossiers/brain-computer-interfaces)

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