From speech to brain signals (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1 : Science and Tech
Prelims level : Synthetic Specch
Mains level : Read the attached story

Context

• Scientists used brain signals recorded from epilepsy patients to program a computer to mimic natural speech an advancement that could one day have a profound effect on the ability of certain patients to communicate.
• The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Technologies (BRAIN) Initiative.\

Key highlights

• In this study, speech scientists and neurologists from UCSF recreated many vocal sounds with varying accuracy using brain signals recorded from epilepsy patients with normal speaking abilities. The patients were asked to speak full sentences, and the data obtained from brain scans was then used to drive computer-generated speech.
• Furthermore, simply miming the act of speaking provided sufficient information to the computer for it to recreate several of the same sounds.
• The loss of the ability to speak can have devastating effects on patients whose facial, tongue, and larynx muscles have been paralyzed due to stroke or other neurological conditions.
• Technology has helped these patients to communicate through devices that translate head or eye movements into speech. Because these systems involve the selection of individual letters or whole words to build sentences, the speed at which they can operate is very limited.
• Instead of recreating sounds based on individual letters or words, the goal of this project was to synthesize the specific sounds used in natural speech.
• The researchers took a two-step approach to solving this problem. First, by recording signals from patients’ brains while they were asked to speak or mime sentences, they built maps of how the brain directs the vocal tract, including the lips, tongue, jaw, and vocal cords, to make different sounds.
• Second, the researchers applied those maps to a computer program that produces synthetic speech.

Background

• This research was funded by the NIH BRAIN Initiative (DP2 OD008627 and U01 NS098971-01), the New York Stem Cell Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the McKnight Foundation, the Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation, and the William K. Bowes Foundation.
• The NIH’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. It is managed by 10 institutes whose missions and current research portfolios complement the goals of the BRAIN Initiative: NCCIH, NEI, NIA, NIAAA, NIBIB, NICHD, NIDA, NIDCD, NIMH, and  NINDS.
• NINDS is the nation’s leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system. The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.

Way forward

• NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
• NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research.
• Further it is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q.1) The Department of Official Language was set up in June 1975 as an independent Department of the:
A. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
B. Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs
C. Ministry of Home Affairs
D. Ministry of Law and Justice

Answer: C

Mains Questions:
Q.1) Describe the highlights of the discoveries to speech from brain signals.