Daily briefing: Brain implant lets ‘locked in’ person chat with family
Nature
Flora Graham
2022 03 24
https://idp.nature.com/transit?redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fd41586-022-00867-0&code=a18d9d5e-2787-46a3-a107-28c8fa85d0db
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Topologist Dennis Sullivan has won the 2022 Abel Prize.Credit: John Griffin/Stony Brook University/Abel Prize
Mathematician Dennis Sullivan has won one of the most prestigious awards in mathematics, for his contributions to topology — the study of qualitative properties of shapes — and related fields. The Abel Prize, which is given by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, is worth 7.5 million Norwegian Kroner (US$854,000). The Abel is considered a lifetime-achievement award. Sullivan says that the result he is proudest of is one he obtained in 1977, which distils the crucial properties of a space using a tool called rational homotopy.
For the first time, a person who is completely paralysed can form sentences using an implanted device that reads brain signals. The 36-year-old man has motor neuron disease. He was able to make sentences at a rate of about one character per minute by changing the audible tone of an output device to navigate through letters. He eventually explained to researchers that he modulated the tone by trying to move his eyes. In both German and English, he was able to communicate with his wife and 4-year-old son, and could express his food and physical preferences. Among his statements were “I would like to listen to the album by Tool loud,” and “I love my cool son.”
Reference: Nature Communications paper
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