Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Building communication neurotechnology for high stakes communications

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 22, pages 587–588 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

When designing neurotechnologies to assist people with communication disabilities, neuroscientists and engineers must consider both the speaker’s perspective and the listeners’ ability to judge the voluntariness and accuracy of decoded communication. This is particularly important in personally significant communication contexts for which there are profound legal and societal implications.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Pandarinath, C. et al. High performance communication by people with paralysis using an intracortical brain–computer interface. eLife 6, e18554 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Anumanchipalli, G. K., Chartier, J. & Chang, E. F. Speech synthesis from neural decoding of spoken sentences. Nature 568, 493–498 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Mugler, E. M. et al. Direct classification of all American English phonemes using signals from functional speech motor cortex. J. Neural Eng. 11, 035015 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Herff, C. et al. Generating natural, intelligible speech from brain activity in motor, premotor, and inferior frontal cortices. Front. Neurosci. 13, 1267 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Moses, D. A. et al. Real-time decoding of question-and-answer speech dialogue using human cortical activity. Nat Commun 10, 3096 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Makin, J. G., Moses, D. A. & Chang, E. F. Machine translation of cortical activity to text with an encoder-decoder framework. Nat. Neurosci. 23, 575–582 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Dash, D., Ferrari, P. & Wang, J. Decoding imagined and spoken phrases from non-invasive neural (MEG) signals. Front. Neurosci. 14, 290 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Martin, S. et al. in Brain-Computer Interface Research: A State-of-the-Art Summary 7 (eds Guger, C., Mrachacz-Kersting, N. & Allison, B. Z.) 83–91 (Springer, 2019).

  9. Moses, D. A. et al. Neuroprosthesis for decoding speech in a paralyzed person with anarthria. New Engl. J. Med. 385, 217 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Kubler A., Nijboer, F. & Kleih S. in Brain Computer Interfaces Vol 168 (eds Ramsey, N. F. & del Millan, R.) 353–368 (Elsevier, 2020).

  11. Han, C.-H., Müller, K.-R. & Hwang, H.-J. Brain-switches for asynchronous brain–computer interfaces: a systematic review. Electronics 9, 422 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Rainey, S. et al. Neuroprosthetic speech: the ethical significance of accuracy, control and pragmatics. Camb. Q. Healthc. Ethics 28, 657–670 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the comments of P. Wood on the use of communication neurotechnology in the context of living with late stage ALS. We also thank E. Snell (Snell Communications), T. Ladd (Cognixion) and the International Neuroethics Society for support for the workshop Breaking Through: Neurotechnology for High Consequence Communication and Decision-Making (Toronto, 2019) that inspired this Comment.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Jennifer A. Chandler & Kiah I. Van der Loos

  2. Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

    Susan E. Boehnke

  3. Faculty of Law, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Jonas S. Beaudry

  4. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Daniel Z. Buchman

  5. Neuroethics Canada, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Judy Illes

Authors
  1. Jennifer A. Chandler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kiah I. Van der Loos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Susan E. Boehnke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jonas S. Beaudry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Daniel Z. Buchman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Judy Illes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer A. Chandler.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Related links

BrainGate: https://www.braingate.org/

Brain/Neural Computer Interaction (BNCI) Horizon 2020 project: http://bnci-horizon-2020.eu/images/bncih2020/Appendix_C_End_Users.pdf

Facebook: https://tech.fb.com/imagining-a-new-interface-hands-free-communication-without-saying-a-word/

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE): https://standards.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-standards/standards/web/documents/presentations/ieee-neurotech-for-bmi-standards-roadmap.pdf

International Neuroethics Society: www.neuroethicssociety.org

Neuralink: https://neuralink.com/blog/

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD): https://www.oecd.org/science/recommendation-on-responsible-innovation-in-neurotechnology.htm

US Food and Drug Administration (FDA): https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/implanted-brain-computer-interface-bci-devices-patients-paralysis-or-amputation-non-clinical-testing

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chandler, J.A., Van der Loos, K.I., Boehnke, S.E. et al. Building communication neurotechnology for high stakes communications. Nat Rev Neurosci 22, 587–588 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-021-00517-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-021-00517-w

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing